System for automatically determining the position and velocity of objects

ABSTRACT

A ground based wireless system named the Autonomous Transceivers Positioning System (“ATPS”), performs complete autonomous tracking of multiple moving objects and determines position and velocity components (speed and direction) of a moving object, or the stationary position of an object. For a moving object, the ATPS provides position determination, with accuracy of several centimeters, and velocity determination with an accuracy of centimeters per second. The ATPS tracks the position of multiple objects simultaneously and continuously for as long as the object(s) reside within the workspace of the ATPS wireless system. The ATPS is expandable in its workspace continuously by allowing for tracking information to be autonomously handed over to new added sections of the ATPS. The ATPS contains RFID inspired components including advanced multiple fixed location Autonomous Wireless Interrogators (“AWIs”) within the defined workspace of the system and multiple Autonomous Wireless Responders (“AWRs”) affixed to the moving and/or stationary objects.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority to U.S. provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 62/521,487, filed on Jun. 18, 2017, entitled“System for Location Determination Using advanced RFID Technology,”which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. The presentapplication also claims priority to, and is a continuation of, U.S.nonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 17/177,129, filed on Feb. 16,2021, entitled “System for automatically determining the position andvelocity of objects,”, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S.nonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 16/003,314, filed on Jun. 8,2018, entitled “System for automatically determining the position andvelocity of objects,” both of which applications are hereby incorporatedby reference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND

Over many years now the desire to know the position of a mobile objecthas been the subject of research, publications, patents, and developmentof intellectual property and trade secrets. The early efforts inposition knowledge were limited by technology. The tools for theknowledge of position determination are mostly of “static” nature. Thatis, the position of a mobile object (which may herein be referred to asa “mobile”) is known at a specific time and place after somemeasurements are made. After a certain length of time has elapsed,measurements are taken again, and the new position of the mobile isrecorded. An example of static measurements for position determinationis that of imaging satellites, which are still widely used today. Usingan imaging satellite, the location and characteristics of a certaintarget are acquired when the satellite passes over the target, and areacquired again when the satellite passes over the target a few hourslater. The motion of the target, if any, is then measured by correlatingthe previous and after images to determine the target displacement.

Much more recent technology for tracking the positioning and movement oftargets has been in the form of RFID technology. U.S. Pat. Nos.8,629,762, 8,838,135, 8,842,013, 8,866,615, 9,291,699, 9,332,394,9,338,606, 9,472,075, and 9,619,679 are based on RFID technology. UsingRFID technology, the moving object is first affixed or tagged with apassive tag and the object movement is then tracked using active RFIDtags located at strategic locations throughout a workspace of interestwhere the object will move about. This is considered a “dynamic”positioning determination. As the objects moves along, and the passiveRFID transceivers communicate with the active RFID transceiver, thelocations of the objects are registered. Only through the dynamicinterlocking of communications between the RFID transceivers can thepositions of moving objects can be known. Many of previously filed andissued patents use different techniques or modalities of dynamicposition determination. Another example of dynamic positioningtechnology is in the use of laser technology (U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,565,913and 9,360,300). Other previously filed and issued patents disclosedeveloping technologies that make different attempts at methods forposition determination using a combination of existing technologies sucha mobile computing (U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,043,069, 9,177,476), parkingtechnology (U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,395,968, 9,064,414, 9,123,034), and avariety of sensors, radars, range finders, communications devices suchas cell phones and other handsets, navigational aids, and other RFtransmission devices (U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,284,100, 8,428,913, 8,442,482,8,725,416, 8,929,913,8,954,292, 9,071,701, 9,094,816, 9,339,990,9,295,027, 9,369,838, 9,373,241, 9,386,553, 9,485,623, 9,641,978,9,734,714, 6,501,955, 5,379,047, 6,021,371, 7,489,240, 6,907,224,9,749,780 and others).

Presently, the most advanced and most popular positioning determinationmethod for mobiles or stationary objects is the Global Position System(GPS) as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,478,299, 9,274,232, and 9,612,121.GPS is categorized herein as a “continuous” positioning determinationmethod, and it has been available to the public for several years now.Continuous position determination means that an object with GPStechnology can be continuously tracked and its position can bedetermined without any elapsed time if the object can continuouslyreceive GPS signaling from GPS satellites. Therefore, for GPStechnology, continuous tracking is dependent on the uninterruptedavailability of GPS received signals.

Current geo positioning applications such as GPS, rely on foursatellites to triangulate their location. For the most part, thesesystems return accurate results except when operating within the cementcanyons of densely populated cities and geographic obstructions. Indensely populated cities, buildings' “shadows” make it difficult for theGlobal Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) to perform accurately.Without continuous direct received signals from four or more GPSsatellites, a precise positioning cannot be determined.

The positional accuracy of a GPS system, assuming no fading andmultipath, is on the order of 15-30 feet. In congested structuralenvironments GPS signals have troubles being acquired. The technologyfor position determination using GPS is based on the time of arrival(TOA) and the time of reception (TOR) of the GPS signal by the GPSreceiver and the triangulation of the four GPS received signals. Therecan't be any lapse in TOA and TOR if continuous position determinationis desired.

To compensate for the deficiencies in signal coverage due to physicalobstructions in the environment, and to improve the accuracy of GPSpositioning technology, a strategy known as “differential GPS” is used,where corrections are made to the measurements by a mobile receiver(user) by using as reference the measurements done by the nearest fixedGPS base station using the same four GPS satellites.

In a cellular phone system where mobiles (e.g., people) are equippedwith cellular technology and the cellular technology is equipped withGPS receivers, as the mobile object moves, the GPS differential positionof the mobile unit also moves. The mobile unit can move through anextensive route and the cell towers will track the GPS position alongthe route. The “hand-over” of the tracking from one cell tower to thenext occurs when the signal strength received at one tower decreases asthe signal strength received at another tower increases. There iscontinuous communication among the towers as the hand-over occurs.

However, even with all the advances in GPS positioning technology, GPScan only perform the function of a “beacon” in space. To the user, GPSpositioning is nothing more than an electrical beacon overlaid on ageographic information system (GIS) map on the user's mobile device(e.g., the GIS of a Google map on a cellular phone). The only reasonthis beacon is successfully tracked is because of cellular technology.The two technologies (GPS and cellular) are unrelated, even though theycomplement each other concerning the subject of positioning.

Therefore, there is a need for a more accurate determination ofpositioning (presently between 15 to 30 feet as provided by GPS) for amobile system. It would be ideal to determine the position of an objector a mobile accurately to within several inches or centimeters ofuncertainty. A much more accurate position determination of mobiles isneeded to: a) avoid collisions among mobiles, b) enable the mobiles toavoid obstacles in their paths, c) enable the mobiles to navigateautonomously. If there is a need for autonomous movement for a mobile(e.g., Google car) there needs to be a great accuracy in the knowledgeof mobile location, d) enable the mobile to navigate in congestedphysical environments and yet be able to distinguish among the paths ofdifferent mobiles, and e) enable the mobiles to not always rely on GPStechnology, especially when GPS signaling is not available or is beingobstructed. It would also be of great advantage for mobiles to decreasetheir dependency on the effects of shadow issues (e.g., multipath andfading) which are common and obstruct GPS positioning.

There is also a need to establish data communications with the mobilesystem while the mobile is being tracked, a capability not available inGPS positioning since GPS signaling behaves only as an electronicbeacon. For example, an airborne drone can be accurately tracked by afuturistic non-GPS system while at the same time the futuristic non-GPSsystem can get information about the drone's flight path and the statusof its instrumentation. This futuristic system can also provideinformation to the drone such as in the form of commands or telemetryinformation.

There is even a foreseen need, which can also be realized, for mobilesto communicate with each other, and within the framework of inter-mobilecommunications. Furthermore, there is a foreseen need for mobiles toknow not only their own position (known as absolute positioning), butalso the position of the other neighboring mobiles circulating nearby(i.e., the concept of relative positioning) within a prescribeddistance. Finally, there is a foreseen need to measure the speed andrelative direction of motion of the mobiles. These three additionalcapabilities, inter-mobile communication, relative positioning, andvelocity components, are not presently available in GPS or any otherpositioning technology, but they are highly desirable for thetechnological future of mobile systems.

SUMMARY

The present invention may include an autonomous transceiver positioningsystem (ATPS) which provides a ground based autonomous wireless systemthat accurately determines the position of a moving or stationaryobject. For a moving object, the ATPS may provide position determinationwith an accuracy of several centimeters. The ATPS may also providevelocity (speed and direction) determination for a moving object. For astationary object, the ATPS may provide position determination with anaccuracy of several centimeters. The ATPS may be able to track thepositions of multiple objects simultaneously and continuously within adefined workspace. The ATPS may include multiple autonomous wirelessinterrogators (AWIs) on fixed ground locations within a defined space ofinterest and multiple autonomous wireless responders (AWRs) affixed tothe moving and/or stationary objects. The ATPS may use an advanced formof RFID inspired technology such that the AWIs may be able to determine,via hardware and software implementation, the position and tracking ofmultiple AWRs, and the AWRs may be able to communicate with multipleAWIs. The ATPS may also enable the AWRs to inter-communicate among eachother using the AWIs, and the AWIs themselves can also inter-communicatewith each other. Therefore, the ATPS may behave as a closed loop system.The coverage of the ATPS is only limited by the numbers of AWIsavailable and their coverage, and therefore can be expanded to suit anapplication. Therefore, the coverage of the ATPS is dependent on thecoverage of the AWIs. The ATPS, though essentially a closed loop, alsohas external access points for different external interfaces. Theseexternal interfaces enable the ATPS to access the world wide web (WWW)and other future forms of external sources of information.

The ATPS may be an autonomous wireless system that is intentionallydeterministic from its creation. All the elements of the ATPS may be fordetermining the accurate location and tracking of an object in aconfined space (also known as a workspace). In the ATPS, location is notdetermined from the manipulation of incidental knowledge that isavailable from other existing technologies, including wireless, whichserve other purposes. Rather, the ATPS uses advanced technologies todevelop new approaches for position determination, which means that allthe elements of the technology may be specifically designed for positiondetermination.

The ATPS has the capability of locating and tracking the position ofmultiple objects (AWRs) simultaneously as they move. In addition toposition determination, the ATPS can also track simultaneously thedirection of motion of multiple objects and the speed of multipleobjects. The number of objects that ATPS can track is limited only bythe number of wireless AWIs available in the defined space.

A capability of the ATPS is that the system can facilitate large amountsof data exchanges within a closed loop consisting of AWIs and AWRs. Thatis, the AWRs being tracked can exchange data among themselves throughthe wireless AWIs which are tracking the AWRs. In the simplest form,this data exchange consists of information revealing the relativeposition of one AWR with respect to other AWRs and the velocity vectorsfor each of the AWRs. Larger volumes of data exchanges can also beachieved among the AWRs and among AWIs. For example, larger dataexchanges can be used for providing diagnostics, instructions &commands, and many other types and information with uses that areconsistent with the potential different applications.

The AWIs may have nine major sub-systems, and each subsystem may be on adifferent respective electronic board. All the boards in the AWIs may beinterconnected and may include: a) a transceiver sub-system tocommunicate with AWRs (the transceiver sub-system may also include a GPSreceiver); b) a microprocessor-based sub-system to process data,commands, and implement embedded software algorithms; c) a positioningelectronic board including electronics responsible for calculating theposition and velocity of the AWR transceiver, and having ASIC and FPGAelectronics in addition to interface electronics; d) a digital signalprocessing sub-system to process analog and digital data; e) powersupply and power distribution; f) memory; g) an interfaces board toaccount for multiple interfaces such as remote access, hardware testing,antennas, and externally- and internally-generated data; h) antennas andtheir feed network; and i) embedded software.

There are many potential applications of the ATPS, but the mostsignificant one is in autonomous vehicles (e.g., airborne drones andself-drive automobiles). Other potential applications include dataoff-loading from autonomous vehicles, smart parking, guidance ofpedestrians with disabilities, social mobile gaming applications wheregame-play is dependent upon precise geo-location, delivery tracking,emergency services, cell phones and many other applications.

The ATPS is a ground based wireless electronic system with advancedelectronic hardware which uses advanced RFID inspired modes(interrogating and responding) of operation. The system includesautonomous wireless transceivers electronics known as interrogators(AWIs). Multiple interrogators (AWIs) work in an ensemble mode to trackthe position and velocity components (speed and direction) of any object(mobile or stationary) which is equipped with another type of autonomouswireless transceiver electronics known as responders (AWRs). AWIs arestationary and can simultaneously track multiple AWRs. A variety ofbeamforming antennas and smart antennas are used on the AWIs. In someembodiments omnidirectional antennas are used for AWRs. The number ofAWRs that can be tracked is only limited by the number of AWIsavailable. AWIs are capable of autonomously communicating with eachother. AWRs can autonomously communicate with several AWIs. Position andvelocity components of AWRs can be accurately measured in cm and cm/secrespectively. A defined workspace for the tracking of AWRs is defined bythe number of AWIs available. As the AWRs move through the definedworkspace, the AWIs have the capability of autonomously transferring (orhanding over) to other AWIs the tracking of AWRs that move within AWIs'workspace. Therefore, the AWRs are always being tracked, but theresponsibility of tracking the AWRs changes from previous AWIs to newerAWIs that are closer to the AWRs as the AWRs move along.

The ATPS electronic system described above may enable AWIs to determinethe position and velocity of individual AWRs. The AWIs also may becapable of determining the relative position and velocity of AWRs withrespect to other AWRs.

The ATPS can facilitate data exchanges within a closed loop consistingof AWIs and AWRs. For example, the AWRs being tracked can exchange dataamong themselves through the wireless interrogators (AWIs) which aretracking them.

The AWIs in the ATPS may have nine major sub-systems, with eachsubsystem being represented by an electronic board. All the boards inthe AWIs may be interconnected: a) transceiver sub-system to communicatewith AWRs. The transceiver also contains a GPS receiver, b) amicroprocessor based sub-system to process data, commands, and implementembedded software algorithms, c) the positioning electronic board is theelectronics responsible for calculating the position and velocity of theAWR transceiver. It is composed of ASIC and FPGA electronics in additionto interface electronics, d) a digital signal processing sub-system toprocess analog and digital data, e) power supply and power distribution,f) memory, g) interfaces board to account for multiple interfaces suchas remote access, hardware testing, antennas, and external andinternal-generated data, h) antennas and their feed network, and i)embedded software.

The ATPS may include certain elements of the embedded software that areof artificial intelligence nature.

The AWRs in the ATPS may have three major components: a) a transceiversystem to communicate with AWIs, b) microcontroller system, and c)antennas. The AWRs may be battery powered. Batteries may last about oneyear on average.

The AWIs in the ATPS may include electronics such as ASICs, FPGAs,control electronics, telemetry, data manipulation, processing andhandling, memory management, data storage, smart antennas, and PLC.These electronics are used for all eight major subsystems.

The AWIs in the ATPS may be matched with installation fixtures whichenable AWIs to be installed on many types of vertical and horizontalsurfaces.

The AWRs in the ATPS may be matched with installation fixtures whichenable AWRs to be installed on many types of vertical and horizontalsurfaces.

The AWIs in the ATPS may be able to simultaneously track the motions ofAWRs up to 100 meters away. The AWIs can track hundreds of AWRssimultaneously.

The AWIs may be approximately the size and shape of a half-gallon milkcarton. The AWRs may be the size of, or slightly larger than, a creditcard.

The ATPS electronic system can be configured to track the motion ofobjects in the form of airborne and/or terrestrial autonomous mobiledevices. This configuration consists in equipping the mobile deviceswith AWRs electronics. The AWRs may serve as active tags in the mobiledevices moving within the AWIs workspace.

In the ATPS the AWRs may also have passive tags.

The ATPS electronic system may be configured to accurately track themotion of AWRs as they move through the AWIs workspace. As AWRs moveaway from some AWIs and move closer to other AWIs in the workspace, thetask of tracking the AWRs is autonomously handed over from those AWIsfarther away to those AWIs closest to the AWRs (the AWIs closest to theAWRs may be those AWIs experiencing higher signal strength whencommunicating with AWRs). A series of software driven algorithmsembedded in all AWIs may be responsible for the handing over process.

Several AWIs in the ATPS electronic system may be connected to theinternet. The number of AWIs connected to the internet may be correlatedto the size of the AWIs workspace and to the specific application ofthat workspace. The connection to the internet may be via Wi-Fi signals.Communications among the AWIs may be accomplished via WiMAX, Wi-Fi orW-Fi-direct depending on the availability to the AWIs workspace toaccess such modes of communications. The communication link between AWIsand AWRs may be at 3.2 GHz.

The AWIs in the ATPS can be remotely accessed for programming and set-uppurposes to tailor their functions to the requirements and environmentsof the AWIs' given workspace.

In certain embodiments of the ATPS, AWIs and AWRs can use differenttypes of directional and omnidirectional antennas instead of smartantennas or in addition to smart antennas. Using directional andomnidirectional antennas may require an increase in the number of AWIs,and this approach may cause an increase in the number of these antennasas well as change in the location and velocity calculations algorithms.Using directional and omnidirectional antennas may also decrease theoverall implementation costs. For example, if velocity calculations arenot required and only location position is required, smart antennas maynot be needed.

In certain embodiments of the ATPS, the AWRs architecture can be apassive tag with no electrical interfaces and only a microcontrollerunit instead of a microprocessor-based system. This approach requiresonly minimum data exchange between AWIs and AWRs.

In certain embodiments of the ATPS, the ATPS can be integrated with cellphone tower base stations where the cell tower accommodates anadditional set of antennas for the AWIs, and the cell base stationintegrates with the additionally needed AWIs electronics.

In certain embodiments of the ATPS, the ATPS workspace can be aggregatedin the form of clusters, as in cell phone towers communications, andwhere communications among the AWIs can be handed over among clusters.This approach may be greatly facilitated if AWIs' locations are asdescribed in the immediately preceding paragraph.

In certain embodiments of the ATPS, the AWRs can be integrated as afeature in cell phones.

In certain embodiments of the ATPS, the location of AWIs within theirworkspace can be any fixed location that can accommodate solar power orpower provided by public utility companies.

The AWIs in the ATPS can communicate and provide data exchange withnon-autonomous (e.g., manned) entities which the AWIs may accessremotely.

All AWIs in the ATPS may have GPS capability. In certain embodimentssome AWRs may have GPS capability.

In certain embodiments of the ATPS, the AWIs and AWRs can not only beused in open spaces but also in closed spaces, such as in parkingstructures and inside buildings.

In certain embodiments of the ATPS, the locations of the AWIs can beoff-ground and the AWRs can be airborne.

The ATPS can be habilitated for many applications such as autonomousvehicles like airborne drones and self-drive automobiles, dataoff-loading from autonomous vehicles, smart parking, pedestrians withdisabilities, social mobile gaming applications where game-play isdependent upon precise geo-location, delivery tracking, emergencyservices, cell phones and many other applications that require accuratetracking and position determination.

In one embodiment, the invention comprises an arrangement fordetermining a position of an object within a space. The arrangementincludes a first wireless transceiver carried by the object andtransmitting a signal including time information. At least four secondwireless transceivers are fixedly mounted within the space. Each of thesecond wireless transceivers receives the signal. At least one of thesecond wireless transceivers calculates a position of the object basedupon the time information and respective times at which each of thesecond wireless transceivers receives the signal.

In another embodiment, the invention comprises an arrangement forinforming a moving object of its position within a space. Thearrangement includes a first wireless transceiver carried by the movingobject and transmitting a first signal including time information. Atleast four second wireless transceivers are fixedly mounted within thespace. Each of the second wireless transceivers receives the firstsignal. At least one of the second wireless transceivers calculates aposition of the object based upon the time information and respectivetimes at which each of the second wireless transceivers receives thefirst signal. At least one of the second wireless transceivers transmitsa second signal to the moving object indicative of the calculatedposition of the object.

In yet another embodiment, the invention comprises an arrangement formanaging occupancy of a parking area by vehicles each carrying a firstwireless transceiver. The arrangement includes at least four earthboundsecond wireless transceivers associated within the parking area. Each ofthe second wireless transceivers receives a respective first signal fromeach of the vehicles occupying the parking area. Each of the firstsignals includes time information. An electronic processor iscommunicatively coupled to the four earthbound second wirelesstransceivers and calculates a respective position of each of thevehicles occupying the parking area based upon the time information andrespective times at which each of the second wireless transceiversreceives the first signal. It is determined which parking spaces of aplurality of parking spaces within the parking area are occupied by thevehicles. The determining is based on the calculated positions of eachof the vehicles occupying the parking area.

When the ATPS is designed for ground system (i.e., ATPS-Ground), an AWIis renamed a Ground Based Transceivers (GBT) and an AWR is renamed asthe mobile-with-RFID-active-tag or mobile/RFID for short.

In certain embodiment, the ATPS-Ground is composed of multiple clustersof four (4) GBTs each. The GBTs are identical in design. The GBTs willtrack the motion of mobiles/RFID within a cluster and provide furthercapabilities for the tracking of the mobiles/RFID as they move from onecluster to the next cluster. As the mobiles/RFID move from cluster tocluster they can communicate with GBTs and also with external wirelessdevices via Wi-Max, Wi-Fi, 5G, etc. The GBTs within a cluster exchangemobile/RFID information with each other as the mobile moves within acluster and such tracking information is handed over to the next clusteras the mobile/RFID moves into the next cluster.

In certain embodiment, the mobile/RFID responds quickly to the Pingsfrom each of the four (4) GBTs within a cluster. Timing informationreceived from both, the mobile/RFID and the GBTs, is used to calculatethe distance from each GBT to the mobile/RFID on a continuous basis asthe mobile/RFID moves through the clusters of four (4) GBTs. The timingdata is also used to calculate the coordinates of the mobile/RFID on acontinuous basis. Within each cluster of four (4) GBTs, and based ontiming data, one of the GBTs within a cluster assumes a commanding roleover the other three (3) GBTs of the cluster. The commanding GBT, to benamed the designated GBT, will carry the responsibility of handing overthe tracking of the mobile/RFID to the following cluster and willperform some of the most crucial measurements concerning themobiles/RFID, such as the coordinates of the mobile/RFID, themobile/RFID velocity, and the relative velocity of the mobile/RFID withits nearest neighbor.

Using the timing information acquired by the GBTs, the position of themobile/RFID, the velocity of the mobile/RFID, and the relative velocityof the mobile/RFID with its nearest neighbor is accomplished by acomplex design of four (4) field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), adigital signal processing (DSP) interface block, and two (2) processors.The four processors are named as followed: (a) the main processor, and(b) the application processor. The four FPGA are named as followed: (a)master controller, (b) external input controller, (c) position andvelocity determination hybrid system (PVD-HS), and (d) the App processorinterconnect. The complex design also incorporates three (4) SRAMarchitectures named as followed: (a) the PVDS-HS, (b) the FPGAcontroller, (c) the FPGA-App processor, and (d) the external inputcontroller SRAM memory.

The position of the mobile/RFID, the velocity of the mobile/RFID, andthe relative velocity of the mobile/RFID with its nearest neighbor canalso be accomplished by using beam forming antennas arrays in each ofthe ground-based transceivers (GBTs). The beamforming antennas cancalculate the angle of arrival (AOA) between the mobile/RFID and theantenna array. The AOA can be used to calculate the coordinates of themobile/RFID but such will be a secondary capability since thecoordinates of the mobile/RFID can be more accurately determined fromtiming measurements analyzed by the PVD-HS.

In certain embodiment external commands and external networking (e.g.,Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, 5G) can be interfaced with a GBT. Such interface has itsown FPGA controller, memory and interface circuitry. The interfacecircuitry connects to the main bus (known as system bus) within a GBT.Likewise, all data generated within a GBT can be externally interfacedto a PCI bus for information, testing or troubleshooting purposes.Therefore, each GBT and its internal electronics can be externallyinterface to receive data and/or transmit data.

The tasks for position of the mobile/RFID, the velocity of themobile/RFID, and the relative velocity of the mobile/RFID with itsnearest neighbor can be accomplished with FPGA designs andmultiprocessors assistance. The FPGA designs perform mathematicaloperations embedded in the hardware for maximum speed and accuracy. Themultiprocessors perform data flow management and some final mathematicaloperations. The combined approach is a way to maximize data gatheringand processing for constantly tracking services of multiplemobiles/RFID.

The four (4) BGTs in a cluster are identical in design and functionalcapabilities but only one ground-based transceiver (GBT) can become thedesignated (D) GBT, i.e., D_GBT. The D_GBT controls the functions of theremaining three (3) GBTs in a cluster while the mobile/RFID movesthrough the cluster. The GBT closest (in distance) to the mobile/RFIDwhen the mobile/RFID enters the cluster becomes the D_GBT. The distanceis determined by timing analysis of the signals between the GBTs and themobile/RFID. The choice of which GBT is the D_GBT is mandated by the GBTwhich has the lowest response time (i.e., the time it takes for theacknowledge signal (response) from the mobile/RFID to travel between themobile/RFID and each GBT when the mobile/RFID get pinged by the four (4)GBTs). For each GBT, the timing data is first processed by the DSP blockwhich received the information from the RF subsystem. The main processorand the PVD-HS perform the data management which calculates the lowestresponse time. The lowest response time data is sent out via the DSPblock and the RF-subsystem to each GBT. One GBT becomes the “winner” andbecomes the D_GBT when it informs the other GBTs that such GBT isclosest to the mobile/RFID that just entered the cluster.

Timing analysis of the signals being received and transmitted by themobile/RFID, as well as the timing analysis of the signals beingtransmitted and received by the ground-based transceivers (GBT) isperformed by FPGAs which have been designed to perform multipleanalytical and arithmetic operations. Separate FPGAs are also designedto perform control functions for the analytical and arithmeticoperations being performed. More advanced operations related to positiondetermination and vector velocities of the mobile are performed bymicroprocessor working in conjunction with the FPGAs.

The GBT design contains interface circuits to access data transportvenues which allow the data to be sent externally and internally. Thereis interface circuitry design to send the raw timing data to anyapplicable non-wireless (i.e., dedicated hardwired) externalapplication. The raw timing data can be used for analyzing data quality,data errors, data integrity, diagnostics, troubleshooting, and for otherindependent analyses. There is interface circuitry design to allowtiming data to be sent via a system bus. The system bus communicatesessentially with all the major data generation center within the GBT.There is interface circuitry to allow external wireless links (Wi-Fi,Wi-Max, 5G, etc.) to be connected directly with the system bus. Theexternal links allow for timing information and other data beinggenerate to be sent wirelessly for other applications.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The novel features of the invention are set forth in the appendedclaims. However, for purpose of explanation, several embodiments of theinvention are set forth in the following figures.

FIG. 1. GPS signals are often blocked from being received by cellphones. In congested physical obstruction areas, a GPS signal is oftenblocked in a GPS receiver. An example is the loss of GPS signal in acell phone when the cell phone loses lock with its assigned cell towerin a congested physical environment.

FIG. 2. One of the problems with GPS is that a mobile in transit canfail GPS lock in congested physical environments. Furthermore, themobile does not know its relative position with respect to other mobileobjects.

FIG. 3. Some basic advantages of ATPS over GPS are shown. The figureshows that in addition to accurate positioning of a mobile (moreaccurate than GPS) the ATPS can perform additional functions notavailable in the GPS.

FIG. 4. Differential GPS techniques increases the accuracy of userposition by receiving corrected positioning data from a nearby receiverbase station. The ATPS also makes use an improved type of differentialpositioning among the AWIs.

FIG. 5. Accurate tracking of the position of an AWR uses multiple AWIsto accomplish serial correction for differential positioning. In thefigure four AWIs use differential positioning to track a single AWR.AWIs can track multiple AWRs simultaneously.

FIG. 6. A passenger with a cell phone inside a mobile knows its GPSposition (and that of the mobile) because the cell towers that keeptrack of the cell phone communications are also used to track the GPSreceiver inside the cell phones.

FIG. 7. Mobile unit (with an AWR) moving among several AWI unitsarranged in clusters of four AWIs each. In the figure, four AWIs unitsare used to track an AWR unit.

FIG. 8. The ATPS system communication capability with WWW is shown viathe cloud. In the figure an AWR unit on a mobile is tracked by four AWIunits and one of the AWI units communicates with the WWW via the cloud.

FIG. 9. Closed loop communications between the ATPS and othercommunications venues. In the figure there is closed loop communicationsystem between the ATPS, the internet, and a cell phone such that dataflows through each of them in an integrated manner.

FIG. 10. The figure shows basic components of an advanced mobilecommunication solution using ATPS. The integrated system involves ATPS,personal communications devices, and the WWW.

FIG. 11. Application of the ATPS to a “smart parking” application. AWIsstations are located within the parking area and enable mobiles,equipped with AWRs, to be guided in and out of parking spaces.

FIG. 12. Application of the ATPS to a handicapped blind individual usinga “wireless cane” which behaves as an AWR. The AWIs stations providepositioning guidance to a handicapped blind person equipped with a canecontaining an AWR.

FIG. 13. An AWI station is simultaneously tracking four AWRs andallowing the Poles to simultaneously exchange data among them.

FIG. 14. Application of the ATPS for traffic monitoring. The ATPS cantrack the traffic of multiple mobiles in and out of the coverageworkspace.

FIG. 15. Overview of AWI hardware architecture. The figure broadly showsthe eight major subsystems of the AWI architecture.

FIG. 16. Overview of AWR hardware architecture. The figure broadly showsthe main components of the AWR architecture.

FIG. 17. Functional description and associated hardware of the powersupply for the AWI. The power supply will provide all the dc voltagesrequired for the operation of the AWI.

FIG. 18. Functional description and associated hardware of the radiofrequency (RF) assembly of the AWI. The RF assembly will provide two-wayRF communications between the AWI and AWR. It is the only assembly inthe AWI that can communicate with the AWR.

FIG. 19. Functional description and associated hardware of the digitalsignal processor (DSP) assembly. The DSP assembly processes allcommunications between the AWI and AWR in useful formats and extractsthe valuable data which will allow the AWI and AWR to achieve theirgoals.

FIG. 20. Functional description and associated hardware of the mainprocessor assembly for the AWI. The main processor assembly controls theI/O interface serial data bus and all the data flow in that bus as wellas execution of control instructions on the bus for the other AWIassemblies.

FIG. 21. Functional description and associated hardware of the interfaceassembly. The assembly provides an interface for all externallygenerated and user provided information to the AWI. It's the AWIinterface to the outside world such as the WWW and external users'input.

FIG. 22. Functional description and associated hardware describing howthe useful data information from each of the AWI and processed by theDSP assembly is used to calculate position, velocity, and direction ofmotion of an object.

FIG. 23. Functional description and associated hardware for the storageof information (position, velocity, and direction of motion) frommultiple objects being continuously tracked by multiple AWI in acontinuous manner.

FIG. 24. Functional description and associated hardware for the frontend of a smart antenna arrangement (adaptive beam forming) for thesimultaneous efficient tracking of multiple objects in motion orstationary.

FIG. 25. Functional description and associated hardware of the AWR.

FIG. 26. A mobile with its own RFID (active tag), previously named anAutonomous Wireless Receiver (AWR), enters a Cluster of four (4) GroundBase Transceivers (GBT), previously named Autonomous WirelessInterrogators (AWI). The mobile with its own RFID enters and passes-thruthe first Cluster (Cluster 1) of four GBT and then enters andpasses-thru a second Cluster (Cluster 2) of four GBT. The tracking ofcommunications between the four GBT and the mobile with its own RFID canbe handed over from Cluster 1 to Cluster 2. Communications channelsexists among the four GBT in Cluster 1 and also among the four GBT inCluster 2.

FIG. 27. A mobile with its own RFID (active tag) enters Cluster 1 (C1).C1 is composed of four (4) Ground Based Transceivers (GBT1 thru GBT4).The mobile with its own RFID communicates with each GBT1 thru GBT4 inC1. Likewise, each GBT1 thru GBT4 in C1 also communicates with themobile with its own RFID. Communications is also generated among GBT1thru GBT4 in C1. As the mobile moves from Cluster 1 to Cluster 2 (C2)communication is handle by GBT1 thru GBT4 in C2. The mobile with its ownRFID communicates with each GBT1 thru GBT4 in C2. Likewise, each GBT1thru GBT4 in C2 also communicates with the mobile with its own RFID.Communications is also generated among GBT1 thru GBT4 in C2. In C1 oneGBT is named the designated (D) GBT (C1_D_GBT) as shown in the figurefor GBT2 (i.e., C1_D_GBT2). In C2 one GBT is named the designated (D)GBT (C2_DGBT) as shown in the figure for GBT1 (C2_GBT1).

FIG. 28. The hybrid FPGA-Processor chip system for position and velocitydetermination. The chip calculates continuously the position andvelocity of the mobile. The figure contains supporting electronics toaccomplish the tasks, such a multiplexer (MUX) which process incomingdata from up to four ground-based transceivers (GBT1-GBT4) to be sortedout, a master controller FPGA which coordinates the functions of theother electronics, a memory to hold data in-and-out of the interfacecircuitry, and an interface electronics which allows the transfer ofdata to the system bus.

FIG. 29. Illustration of the beamforming antenna array for tracking thedirection of motion of the mobile with its RFID. There is a beamformingantenna array in each GBT. The designated GBT (D-GBT) in the clustermeasures the angle-of-arrival theta (Θ) between the mobile and theD-GBT. The angle Θ is used to calculate the relative velocity of themobile with its RFID (i.e., Velocity (V) =Speed+angle Θ.

FIG. 30. A system's view of the GBT. There are five (5) major subsystemwithin the GBT system: (a) the RF sub-system, previously discussed insome details in FIG. 18, (b) the hybrid FPGA-Processor chip sub-systemfor position and velocity determination, discussed in FIG. 28, andpreviously addressed, more generally, in FIG. 21 and FIG. 22, (c) thedigital signal processing sub-system (DSP block) previously addressedmore generally in FIG. 19, (d) main processor sub-system which holds thecontrol of the system bus (the highway by which all data flow). The mainprocessor connects to the DSP block to extract the digitized data fromthe RF sub-system, and (e) the external interface subsystem which allowscommunication (data/commands) from external sources (e.g., Wi-Fi, 5G,etc.).

FIG. 31. The design of the position and velocity determination (PVD)hybrid system (HS) for the designated GBT (D-GBT) in a cluster: ThePVD-HS/D-GBT system, for a given cluster, is a hybrid combination ofFPGA design and a microprocessor design architecture, hence the name HS.The PVD-HS/D-GBT design is composed of four sections: (a) themultiplexer (MUX) interface which gathers 8 data points (words) fromeach of the 4 GBT in a cluster, (b) an FPGA design which manages thereceived data from the MUX to calculate timing and position information(2 additional words being generated: timing and position), storing thenow 10 words (8+2) in memory and making available the data to anapplication processor unit, (c) the application processor unit whichwill calculate the mobile's coordinates with respect to the D-GBT, themobile velocity, and the relative velocity between the mobile beingtracked and its nearest neighbor mobile, and (d) The FPGA-ApplicationProcessor Interface which manages the transfer of the 10 words to theapplication processor unit.

FIG. 32. The design of the position and velocity determination (PVD)hybrid system (HS) for the three non-designated GBT (non-D-GBT) in acluster: The PVD-HS/non-D-GBT system, for a given cluster, has the samedesign than the PVD-HS/D-GBT of FIG. 31 because all GBT are of identicaldesign, since any GBT has the capability of being a D-GBT. However, fora non-D-GBT the application processor unit does not make anycalculations (mobile's position coordinates, mobile's velocity, mobile'srelative velocity) but rather passes the 10 words to the D-GBT.

FIG. 33. Three of the GBT of a given cluster are used to constantlycalculate the coordinates of the mobile (X_(m), Y_(m)) with its RFID, asthe mobile moves through a cluster. The coordinates of each of the fourGBT for a given cluster are known: (X₁, Y₂), (X₂, Y₂), (X₃, Y₃), and(X₄, Y₄). The distance calculations between each GBT to the mobile areconstantly made: D₁, D₂, D₃, and D₄ as the mobile moves through acluster. One of the GBT in the cluster becomes the designated GBT(D_GBT). In the figure, as an example, GBT2 is the D_GBT. The D_GBTgathers all the distance and timing calculation from each of the otherthree GBT.

FIG. 34. The figure shows a graphical interpretation of how distancecalculations are implemented in an FPGA. The figure shows a graphicalimplementation of combined addition/subtraction adder in an FPGAarchitecture. It allows for the calculation of the time differencebetween the time of arrival (TOA) of the signal from the mobile to agiven GBT and the time of transmission of the signal from the mobile(Ti−Tm). The figure also shows a graphical implementation of themultiplier algorithm (partitional sequential binary multiplier) in anFPGA. The multiplier algorithm constantly evaluated the distance (Di)between the mobile and a GBT. The multiplier algorithm is implemented bythe Datapath Unit shown in the figure. The timing accuracy is in theorder of milliseconds, hence the need to use 32 bits for each wordrelated to timing issues.

FIG. 35. The sequence of controlling events needed to implement themultiplier algorithm of FIG. 34 is shown in FIG. 35. The controllingevents for the multiplier algorithm are implemented by the MasterController FPGA shown in FIG. 34. The description of the controllingevents is shown by the flow diagram of FIG. 35. The controlling FPGAfunctions consists of 32 steps (or states S1 thru S32) of manipulatingbits in a multiplication process for millisecond accuracy.

FIG. 36. The main processor, per FIG. 30, exercises a control functionon the Master Controller FPGA. Also, per FIG. 30 the Master ControllerFPGA exercises a control function on the SRAM memory. Both controlfunctions are illustrated in more details in FIG. 36.

FIG. 37. The figure provides a more detailed description of the“Interface Circuits” block in FIG. 28 and FIG. 30. The figure shows theUniversal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) design implementedwithin the following: Master Controller FPGA, External Input ControllerFPGA, and the DSP Block Controller, all of which are shown in FIG. 30.The figure also shows the UART connection to potentially two differenttypes of serial data interfaces, both of which are industry standards,the RS422 and the LVDS.

FIG. 38. Provides formatting details of the 10 words described in FIG.31 and FIG. 32.

FIG. 39. Sequence of steps (known as processes: Process 1 a thru Process3 a) concerning signal acquisition (from the mobile RFID) as it enters acluster of GBT, signal processing by the four GBT of the cluster, signalhandover from one cluster to another cluster, and signal tracking ingeneral as the mobile moves through clusters of four GBT each.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows a typical cell phone in its GPS mode, but the phone showsno GPS received signal. Cell phones contain a GPS receiver chip whichallows a cell phone user to fix its position on a geographicalinformation map (GIM) with an accuracy of 15-30 feet. The GIM is alwayspart of the geographical information system (GIS) that is beingfacilitated to the cell phone architecture by cell phone towers closestto where the cell phone is located (i.e., those cell phone towersresponsible with communicating with the given cell phone). The accuracyof the geographical positioning provided by a cell phone GPS receiverdepends totally on the quality of the GPS received signal from GPSsatellites. Inherently, the accuracy of the GPS positioning signaling isonly 15-30 feet. However, the accuracy can decrease even further due tothe presence of other factors, such as atmospheric environmentalconditions, weather, cosmic phenomena, GPS satellite malfunctioning, andphysical obstructions on the ground, all of which can prevent a directline of sight signal between the GPS satellites and the cellular phone.Therefore, not only the accuracy of GPS positioning can decrease, butGPS signals are often blocked and cannot reach a cell phone, and in sucha case, there is no GPS positioning indication at all to the user. FIG.1 shows an example of no received GPS signal and the response of thecell phone to indicate that there is no received GPS signal, asindicated at 1. The technical information previously described herein isalso applicable to other GPS receivers in general.

FIG. 2 shows the challenge that GPS and other positional systems facedue to their dependence of line-of-sight (LOS) from GPS satellites fortheir accuracy and actual performance. GPS technology requires that GPSreceivers on earth maintain an uninterrupted communication link withfour GPS satellites on geosynchronous orbit around the earth. As thetransmitted satellite GPS signals from 20000 km in space reach a GPSreceiver on earth, the signal is exposed to several measures ofdegradation. Space radiation (from the sun and cosmos), atmosphericattenuation and distortion, and geometric diffractions are the majorculprits for signal degradation. Degraded GPS signals produce wrong ortotal lack of GPS positioning calculation by GPS receivers. Of theseveral causes of GPS signal degradation, geometric diffraction is oftenthe most observable one to a user, since it is more observable nearbythe GPS receiver the user owns. When there is not a direct LOS betweenthe GPS satellites and the GPS receiver, it means, that as shown in FIG.2, the signals transmitted by the GPS satellites are being interruptedby physical obstacles (e.g. buildings, as shown in FIG. 2), hence thesignals get diffracted and/or reflected by these physical obstacles andmay never reach the GPS receiver, and if received by the GPS receiver,the signals will be distorted (i.e. phase and magnitude) which willresult in erroneous positioning calculations or no positioningcalculations at all. Having said all this, the most importantvulnerabilities of GPS signaling are the uncontrollable andunrecoverable factors: malfunctioning satellites, solar flares and solarwind and overall sun output, and the uncertainty of the extraterrestrialspace environment.

An important salient feature concerning GPS receiver measurements isthat such GPS receiver measurements are individually (singularly)isolated for each receiver. Therefore, each user that has its own GPSreceiver can only know its own position, not the position of any otherGPS user in its own vicinity, nor it is capable either of knowing therelative position of other GPS users in its vicinity with respect to itsown.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a specific application of the ATPS. Thefigure shows the simultaneous tracking of multiple mobiles in a highlyphysically congested workspace. The congested workspace is made up ofmany mobiles and surrounding physical obstructions 3. The figure showsthat if a mobile with a GPS receiver, can establish, in such a congestedphysical environment, a GPS connection via a direct LOS to four GPSsatellites, the accuracy of its true position is between 15 and 30 feet.The same figure also shows that using the ATPS the accuracy of the trueposition of the same mobile increases significantly to about 1 foot.Because the accuracy of position determination in the ATPS is muchsuperior than GPS, the relative position of multiple mobiles in acongested workspace can also be determined. The ATPS can determine theaccurate positioning (to 1 foot) of multiple mobiles very close to eachother as shown in the figure. Furthermore, the ATPS can also determinethe relative positioning of the multiple mobiles with respect to eachother. The GPS positioning system is incapable of determining relativepositioning of any mobile with respect to any other mobile and is alsoincapable of tracking multiple mobiles because it can only providesingular positioning to GPS receivers.

ATPS has the capability to interact with technologies that are presentlybeing used in autonomous mobile systems such as in autonomous mobilesequipped with radar and proximity sensors, vision and image sensors.Eventually, ATPS will interface with 5G wireless systems.

An introduction of how GPS works is shown in FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is shown tointroduce some terminology that will also be used in ATPS. As of today,the most successful individual (singular) position determinationtechnology, which is widely used all over the world, and which has beenincorporated in most wireless personal communication devices is theglobal positioning system or GPS. FIG. 4 provides a description of theGPS at the satellite level. The GPS requires four satellites 4 toestimate the location of a user possessing a GPS receiver 5. All foursatellites communicate with the ground-based GPS receiver. Of the foursatellites, three of the satellites are used to triangulate the locationof the GPS receiver, the fourth satellite is used to resolve the timeuncertainty incurred by the other three independent satellites. Toincrease the accuracy of the GPS receiver location 5, the same foursatellites also communicate with a receiver at a GPS base station 6 thathas a known and fixed GPS location. The base station that has a knownGPS location compares its known GPS location with the location revealedby its own GPS measurements. The known errors (differences in x, y and zcoordinates) known as differential correction 7 (or correction factor)is applied to the user of GPS receiver 5. The position determinationusing GPS requires several measurements from different sources (GPSsatellites) because position determination is based on triangulation offour received timing signals. However, the accuracy of the receivedtiming signals is limited because the satellites are 20,000 km away andthe radio signals are exposed to the everchanging space and atmosphericenvironment which change the timing of the received signals in additionto other potential degrading factors such as transmitter and receivernoise and physical obstructions, as previously explained. Four distancevectors (D) are calculated using the equation Dn=(186000miles/sec)*(Tn)*Cf, where T represents the measured timed (in sec) fromthe GPS satellite to the GPS receiver, n=1,2,3,4 represents the 4closest GPS satellites to the GPS receiver, and Cf represents thecorrection factor calculated by the base station with known GPS locationand transmitted to the GPS receiver of the user. The triangulation ofthe four distance vectors on a GIS map produces the receiver GPSposition indication.

ATPS is not a singular position determination technology as GPS, butrather, ATPS is a ground based wireless positioning system that allowsfor the simultaneous determination of the position and the tracking ofmultiple tagged objects. Furthermore, ATPS allows for the flow oflocation information and tracking information about these tagged objectsfor further use by other future wireless communication systems (e.g.,5G). FIG. 5 shows the basic elements of the ATPS. At the basic level,with no expansion, the ATPS consists of a cluster of AWI stations. Eachcluster contains four AWI stations (or “interrogators”) 8. One of thefour AWI stations, chosen as station 9 in FIG. 5, is configured toreceive the timing information, provided by the AWR transceiver 10, fromthe three other AWI stations in the cluster. The chosen AWI station 9resolves and performs the triangulation calculation needed for thelocation of the AWR in a GIS. The AWI station 9 chosen to performtriangulation calculation for the cluster is called the Master and theremaining three AWI stations are called the Slaves. However, the AWIstation chosen to perform triangulation calculation can be any of thefour AWI stations in the cluster since each of the AWI stations in thecluster are identical. Therefore, within a cluster, the AWI stationwhich is first contacted by the AWR transceiver 10 after beinginterrogated by the AWI stations becomes the Master 9 and assumes theresponsibility of performing the triangulation calculation for thecluster. It may usually be the AWI station closest to the AWRtransceiver 10 that becomes Master 9. The AWR transceiver 10, however,must be able to communicate with the Master 9 and the Slave AWIs 8 asshown in FIG. 5. The timing information from each slave AWI 8 is passedon to the AWI station 9 chosen as the Master, as indicated at 11, duringthe tracking of the AWR transceiver 10. The final link in the process isfor the Master AWI station 9 to transmit the calculated positioninformation to the AWR transceiver 10 and/or any other recipient andtrack such positional information continuously and autonomously whilethe AWR transceiver 10 is within the wireless reach of the cluster.

The AWI stations may be equipped with an embedded fault managementsystem. If the designated Master AWI station later becomes unavailable,another of the remaining three AWI stations becomes the Master and theremaining two AWI stations becomes Slaves AWI stations. If another ofthe remaining three AWI stations designed as Master becomes unavailable,one of the two remaining AWI station becomes the Master and the otherremaining AWI station becomes the Slave. If there is only one AWIstation remaining the remaining AWI station is the Master. If a SlaveAWI station fails, the Master AWI station may ignore it. Multiple AWRscan be tracked within the cluster which means that depending on thenumber of AWRs being tracked within the cluster each AWI station canserve both as Master and Slave multiple times.

Each AWI station within the cluster uses different frequencies. Thefrequency range for all the AWI stations is 3-3.65 GHz and thisfrequency range is parceled out among the four AWI stations. Thebandwidth for each allocated frequency is a minimum 200 Khz and this isalso the channel bandwidth for each allocated frequency. As the taggedobject being tracked moves away from the cluster, the AWI frequenciesare re-used for any other mobile tagged object(s) that enter the rangeof the cluster. Each AWR is interrogated by an AWI station, and the AWRresponds by providing its own identification (ID) and other pertinentinformation to the AWI station which is needed to assess the AWRpositioning. Upon the activation of the AWR transceiver by an AWIstation, the AWR transceiver broadcasts its ID number, its transmittedsignal strength, and time-stamped time of transmission. Therefore, allAWI stations in the cluster will determine or receive: a) the AWRtransceiver ID number, b) the AWR transceiver transmitted signalstrength, c) the received signal strength at the AWI station, d)time-stamped time of the transmission by the AWR transceiver, and e)time-stamped time of signal reception by the AWI station. This procedureis repeated for any AWR transceiver that falls within range of any AWIstation within the cluster. The multiple AWR transceivers aresimultaneously tracked by AWI stations using beamforming smart antennasconnected to each AWI station. Tracking involves location determinationand velocity (speed with direction, if any) of the tagged object. EachAWI station accurately knows its own fixed GPS location in a geographicinformation system (GIS). The interaction between an AWI station and anAWR transceiver may be implemented by RFID technology.

AWI station clusters can be positioned strategically to provide coveragein a defined path so that any tagged object in that path can be trackedat its location by four AWI stations. Some fault tolerant conditions maypreserve to some degree the fidelity of the ATPS. When the tagged objectcan only be tracked by one AWI station, the range (not location) of thetagged object can be estimated by the AWI station by assessing only afew measured parameters, but velocity cannot be estimated. When thetagged object can only be tracked by two AWI stations, the location ofthe tagged object can be partially estimated by assessing a few moreparameters from the AWR transceiver and measured by the two AWIstations, and velocity can only be partially estimated. When three AWIsstations are operating, the location can be estimated much moreaccurately, including velocity estimation, but without the benefit ofresolving for accuracy. When the four AWI stations are operating, thelocation of the AWR transceiver can be accurately estimated using theseveral parameters from the AWR transceiver and as measured by the fourAWI stations. In addition to the several parameters exchanged betweenthe AWR transceiver and the AWI stations, firmware and dedicatedhardware in all the AWI stations may use position determination viatriangulation. Triangulation uses the time-stamped timing data from theAWR transceiver and the AWI stations, and velocity can also beaccurately estimated using triangulation.

Tracking of objects is an important technology that has gained a lot ofapplications over the last few years. One of the simplest applicationsof tracking technology is the use of RFID technology for tracking goodsfor inventory and evaluation purposes. A much more advanced version oftracking is performed by cell towers as shown in FIG. 6. In the figure,cell towers 14, 16, 18 have the capability to track the phoneconversations of a user on a mobile as the mobile moves through fardistances if the cell towers are available along the path of the mobile.It is also because of the tracking capability of phone conversations bycell towers that the GPS position of the owner of the cell phone canalso be tracked, as cell phones have built in GPS receivers. FIG. 6shows a mobile unit 12 with a driver having a cell phone andcommunicating 26 with the nearest cell tower 14 and its base station 20.As the mobile unit moves along the path 24 of FIG. 6, the cell phoneconversation and the location of the driver within a GIS are also beingtracked by the multiple cell towers 14, 16, and 18. As the mobile goesthrough the path, the phone conversation and the location of the driveris “handedover” from tower to tower as the mobile unit 12 moves alongthe path 24. Therefore, as the cell phone conversation is being tracked,the GPS position of the mobile provided by GPS satellites 22 is alsobeen tracked.

The ATPS uses several clusters of ground-based AWI stations to trackautonomously the passage of multiple mobiles with their AWRtransceivers, as shown in FIG. 7. In the figure, a mobile unit 30 isequipped with an AWR transceiver 28. The mobile unit equipped with anAWR transceiver will follow path 34. In the path of the mobile unitthere are a series of clusters 36, 38, and 40 each including four AWIstations, each AWI station 32 being identical to the others. In certainembodiments of the cluster technology the number of AWI stations in acluster can be greater than four. As the mobile unit moves along thepath 34 it will be moving away from one AWI stations cluster andapproaching another AWI stations cluster. Therefore, the ATPS cancalculate the position using all available AWI stations in the clusterwithin range of any given mobile with an AWR transceiver. As the mobilewith an AWR transceiver moves out of range from one cluster of AWIstations and enters in the range of another cluster of AWI stations, theAWR transceiver on the mobile will be tracked continuously as trackingtransfers from one cluster to another cluster, as indicated at 42. Thecluster of AWI stations can be strategically located along a prescribedpath for the AWI stations to effectively track an AWR transceiver.Therefore, the extent of the ATPS, in a workspace, is limited only bythe number of available clusters of AWI stations in the given workspace.There is no limit to the number of clusters of AWI stations that can beused as the available workspace expands. The cluster of AWI stations canbe used in indoor and outdoor workspaces.

FIG. 8 shows the communications links in the ATPS between ATPS stationsand an AWR transceiver on a mobile unit. The figure shows four AWIstations 46 forming a cluster. The figure shows an AWR transceiver on amobile unit 44. The communication between any AWI station and an AWRtransceiver is a two-way communications link as shown. The AWI stations“pings” the AWR transceiver and activates it, and as previously stated,the first AWI station that receives feedback from the AWR transceiverbecomes the Master AWI station. The AWR transceivers behave as activetags as it would be in an RFID system. The AWR transceivers are batterypowered, but they are dormant unless they become activated by an AWIstation. Any AWI station can activate an AWR transceiver and most likelythe AWR transceiver will be activated by the AWI station closest to theAWR transceiver. The exchange of information between AWI stations and anAWR transceiver allows for the AWI stations to calculate the location ofthe AWR transceiver. AWI stations are capable of communication amongthemselves, as indicated at 48, to exchange timing information as it isin the case of the Master and Slaves AWI stations previously discussed.Furthermore, the AWI stations can also communicate with the outsideworld to provide position information about the mobiles 44 beingtracked. In the figure one AWI station provides in a dedicated fashioninternet access with the outside world via the cloud 50 and through awireless network. As used herein, the term “cloud” may refer to softwareand services that run on the Internet.

FIG. 9 is an expanded version of FIG. 8 and shows possibilities thatexist with ATPS in the wireless environment. FIG. 9 shows the ATPScommunicating with the outside world, and this is one of the strengthsof the ATPS, its capability to eventually become integrated with 5G. Themobile unit 52 with an AWR transceiver communicates with four AWIstations 56 for position determination. Once the position of the mobileunit has been determined, the information may be delivered to a user (ormultiple users) who may use such information for a purpose (or multiplepurposes). Therefore, the position information may be sent outside theATPS. In the figure, one of the AWI stations 58 communicates via WIFIwith the Cloud 59 where the position information can be stored forfurther analysis by multiple potential customers 60, such as 5G. In thefigure another AWI station 61 communicates, in a dedicated fashion, witha WiMAX system 62. Once positional data is on the WiMAX system it can beshared in the WWW 64 and even with personal communications devices 66via WWW 64, such as a personal communications device 66 belonging to themobile user, as indicated at 67.

FIG. 10 shows the diverse ways where the AWI hardware can be positionedin a diverse local environment. FIG. 10 shows a generalized AWRtransceiver 68 communicating with four AWI stations 70 affixed to lampsposts 71. The figure clearly shows that because of their small size, theAWI stations do not need special fixtures or towers on which to beinstalled. Rather, an AWI station may be mounted or installed on anytall fixture that has access to electrical power (e.g., solar orwired-in). AWI stations are relatively small, about the size of ahalf-gallon milk carton, and therefore can be affixed to many types offixtures, such as buildings 74, 76 and even cell towers 77. As themobile moves along the workspace environment, AWI stations may keepcommunications with other AWI stations, as indicated at 72, as part ofthe handover process. FIG. 10 also shows ATPS stations accessing theCloud, as indicated at 80, via WIFI, and, from there, communicating viapersonal wireless devices 84, as indicated at 78. Therefore, a user witha cell phone riding on a mobile equipped with an AWR transceiver may beable to find its position in a workspace as calculated by the AWIstations and may be able to track its position on a continuous basis.

FIG. 11 provides a description of the first of two applications of theATPS that goes beyond the tracking of mobile tagged objects. FIG. 11shows an application of the use of ATPS for SmartPark™, a “smartparking” application. In the application of FIG. 11, AWI stations areused to guide vehicles to empty parking slots in a parking structure 92(indoor or outdoor). Since existing parking structures have a variety oflandscapes, FIG. 11 shows that AWI stations are suited for thesevarieties of landscapes. For example, FIG. 11 shows that AWI stationscan be installed in buildings 86 and lamp posts 88, 90 near or insideparking structures. When a car equipped with an AWR transceiver enters aparking structure, the AWR transceiver is activated by the nearest AWIstation among a set of AWI stations at the entrance of the parkingstructure. This set of AWI stations keeps track of cars coming in andgoing out of the parking structure. Therefore, this set of AWI stationskeeps track of the overall number of empty spaces and occupied spaces inthe parking structure. As the car moves inside the parking structure itgoes past several AWI stations, with all the AWI stations contributingto the coverage of all the parking spaces (some full, some empty) withinthe parking structure. The car may then be tracked by several AWIstations as it moves. Since there is wireless communication among theAWI stations, the locations of empty parking spaces within the domain ofAWI stations are known. This is possible because for each parking spacethat is occupied by a vehicle, the vehicle has its own AWR transceiverwhich provides a simple binary indication of empty/full to its closestAWI station. Therefore, as the car moves within the parking structure agiven AWI station communicating with the car's AWR transceiver canprovide numerical information to the car's AWR transceiver of how manyempty spaces (if any) are available within the workspace of a given AWIstation. If there are no parking spaces available, the car moves alongto the next set of AWI stations, and so on. If there are no emptyparking spaces available to the car, then the car may be so instructedbefore the car enters the parking structure and immediately after thecar encounters its first set of AWI stations. Since the AWI stations arecapable of tracking time (e.g., via an internal clock), this feature canalso be used for dynamically charging parking fees, and such informationcan be transmitted wirelessly and remotely if a given AWI station canconnect to the Cloud via WIFI.

FIG. 12 is similar in principle to the scenario described in FIG. 11,and the same elements are involved: AWI stations in diverse locations94, 98 and an AWR transceiver 96 serving a blind man 100. The blind manmay know his position as he moves through his workspace.

FIG. 13 shows what has already been stated before, that one AWI stationcan establish communications with multiple AWR transceivers. FIG. 13shows four AWR transceivers 104 being tracked by a single AWI station102. The number of AWR transceivers that a single AWI station can trackis limited only by channel capacity and not by technology changes. Inthis example, since four AWI station frequency channels are needed totrack a single AWR transceiver, and there are four AWR transceivers inthe workspace of FIG. 13, each AWI station must allocate four differentfrequencies, each with its own bandwidth, to track the four AWRtransceivers. Each of the four different frequencies may be associatedwith four respective frequency channels. Accordingly, there may besixteen channels involved in tracking these four AWR transceivers.Therefore, for N number of AWR transceivers to be tracked there is aneed for 4×N channels. One of the FCC frequency allocations for positiondetermination is the range of 3-3.65 Ghz. If the whole frequencyspectrum were to be used (i.e., 650 MHz), and assuming a 200 Khz channelbandwidth with an additional 20 Khz for channel separation, the numberof potential channels is 2954, which means that up to 738 AWRs could betracked. The tracking includes the pinging by AWI stations of AWRtransceivers, the response of the AWR transceivers, and the dataexchange 106.

The amount of data exchange and the type of data exchange is tailored tothe application, but, at a minimum, the data exchange may include anidentifier for an AWI station to be able to contribute to thecalculation of the AWR transceiver position. For example, FIG. 14 showsan application where traffic is being monitored near a city governmentbuilding (e.g., for security purposes). Cars equipped with AWRtransceivers (e.g., security or VIP-carrying vehicles) 110 are beingtracked by AWI stations 108 which relay position information andpossible security data to another station 112 outside the ATPS, and theinformation and data may be eventually transmitted elsewhere via theWWW. Closing the loop, the same position information and data can berelayed back to the government building 114.

FIG. 15 illustrates the hardware components of the AWI stations. From ahardware point of view the AWI station may be composed of several setsof electronics boards each tailored to perform a specific function. Aspreviously stated, the AWI station may include nine electronic boards:a) transceiver sub-system to communicate with AWRs and other AWIstations. The transceiver sub-system also contains a GPS receiver, b) amicroprocessor based sub-system to process data, commands, and implementembedded software algorithms, c) positioning board is the electronicssub-system responsible for calculating the position of the AWRtransceiver. It is composed of ASIC and FPGA electronics in addition tointerface electronics and firmware, d) a digital signal processingsub-system to process analog and digital data, e) power generation andpower distribution sub-system, f) memory sub-system, g) interfacessub-system to account for multiple interfaces such as remote access,hardware testing, antennas, and external and internal-generated data, h)antennas and their feed network, and i) embedded software.

The power generation and distribution board 128 provides DC power to allthe electronics of the AWI station. The power board has the dualcapability to receive either AC (power utility mains) or DC (solar)power. The power board is also equipped with a back-up Li-Ion battery.The operating bus voltage to the power board may be 30-36V dc. Themicroprocessor subsystem 130 is the CPU board for the AWI station. Thissmall board computer may operate with a clock speed greater than 1 GHz.The interfaces board 114 inputs/outputs have hardwired data externalinterfaces with the outside world (including user interface) andinternal interfaces. The transceiver subsystem board 116 contains allthe RF electronics for two-way wireless communications with other AWIstations and with the AWR transceivers (via dedicated channels). Anotherdedicated daughter board contains RF switches 118 for different modes ofcommunications and matching impedance networks 120 for the transceiverantennas. The transceiver antennas constitute another subsystem 122including smart antennas to create beam forming patterns. The digitalsignal processing (DSP) subsystem 124 may process large amounts oflocation and velocity data from multiple AWRs on a continuous basis(tracking). The digital signal processing (DSP) subsystem 124 may alsoenable the same type of data to be transmitted to other AWI stations.The position determination board 126 assists in the development ofalgorithms for position and velocity determination. This board containsseveral ASIC and/or FPGA ICs.

FIG. 16 shows the AWR transceiver hardware architecture. The AWRtransceiver for ATPS has a Li-Ion battery 134. However, the battery isonly activated via a power-on reset circuit 132 when the AWR transceivergets pinged by an AWI station. The battery feeds regulator circuits togenerate the voltages required by the AWR transceiver electronics. TheAWR transceiver stays powered-on as long as the it can detect beingpinged by an AWI station, afterwards it turns itself off. This approachallows battery power in the AWR transceiver to remain useful for manymonths. The AWR transceiver has a dedicated transceiver subsystem 140responsible for communicating with the AWI stations. The transceiversubsystem connects to a matching network and then to atransmitter/receiver antenna 142. A microcontroller 138 is used forcommand and processing of AWR data to/from the AWI station. Themicrocontroller also connects to a user interface 136.

The details of the eight electronic boards comprising the AWI areoutlined in FIG. 17 through FIG. 24. The ninth electronic boardcomprising the AWR is shown in FIG. 25. The nine electronic boards,which in total make up the AWI and AWR assemblies, may all be multilayerboards. Each multilayer board may have at least eight layers, but someboards may reach up to sixteen layers. The boards may include solidground and solid power copper planes, and the signal layers may berouted between power and ground planes and between ground planes tominimize EMI. There may be four types of multilayer boards (also knownas printed circuit boards-PCB) that may be part of the AWL: a) the powerboard which may accommodate the analog nature of the power electronicsconverters, b) the digital boards which may accommodate traffic ofdigital data from digital circuits, c) the mixed-mode analog-digitalboards which may accommodate data from both analog and digital circuits,and d) the radio frequency board which may accommodate radio frequencycircuits.

FIG. 17 provides a functional description of the power generation boardfor the AWI. FIG. 17 provides a description of all the electronicfunctionalities needed to generate the DC voltages for all theelectronics in the AWI. The generated DC voltages may be distributed toall the other boards through a backplane. The power board may generateregulated lower-level DC voltages from either a 120V AC (public utilitymains) or DC voltages such as those from solar arrays (17-24V). If theAWI uses the public utility mains voltage of 120V AC, the voltage mustbe first converted to a DC voltage and then regulated to a lower-levelvoltage as shown in FIG. 17. The 120V AC voltage is converted to a DCvoltage using a rectification process that involves first a transformer144 and then a rectifier 146. Any intermittent voltage noise generatedby the rectification process is eliminated via a filter 148. In the useof a voltage regulator 150 the resulting DC voltage is down converted to24V before fed through an EMI filter 162. The purpose of the EMI filteris to protect the main DC bus voltages (bus voltages shown in FIG. 17)from voltage noise. If the AWI uses DC voltage generated from solararray 152, the voltage may again be regulated using a regulator 156 anda storage battery 158. The battery may be used for power storage sincesolar power is only partially available. The battery also serves asbackup power in case of a power supply emergency. Proper charging of thebattery is performed via battery manager 154 which provides chargecontrol of the battery. Bus power (˜24V) is channeled to several DC-DCconverters 166 to convert the bus voltage to lower levels. Thelower-level voltages needed are 1.5V, 3.3V, 5V, and 12V. There is aDC-DC converter for the generation of each of these voltages. There arethree systems of protection shown in FIG. 17 for the DC-DC converters.These systems of protection disable the DC-DC converters to avoidhardware damage in case of faults and this protection also leverage thecapability to re-start the converters and the power supply in generalfor any type of multiple reasons. Furthermore, these protections alsoallow to power up in a sequential manner. The first layer of protectionis the undervoltage lockout 164. This feature protects the DC-DCconverters from being damaged due to a bus voltage that is very low(much less than 24V). The second layer of protection is the overvoltageprotection (OVP)/over current (OC) protection 168. Each DC-DC converterhas its own OVP/OC as shown in 172. This feature allows the power supplyto be protected due to shorts occurring downstream the DC-DC converterincluding its loads. The last protection feature is the capability todisable the DC-DC converters via software commands 171 which activateenable and disable circuits 170 remotely in the DC-DC converters. Thesame type of software command is shown on the power switches 159 and 161which can be disabled or enabled via software commands 157. The switchesare used to isolate the two main sources of the bus voltage (solar vsutility mains) depending on the availability. Temperature telemetry(Temp. TLM) 174 of the board is provided via dedicated discrete signalto the analog/digital (A/D) converter of the DSP board.

FIG. 18 provides a functional description of the RF transceiver boardfor the AWI. FIG. 18 provides a description of all the electronicfunctionalities needed to transmit and receive a RF signal to/from theAWR and the AWI. The RF signal contains the baseband information neededto calculate the position, velocity, and additional data from each AWR.The receiver and transmitter paths contain the smart antennas 176 tocommunicate with AWRs and AWIs. The antenna to be used is an adaptivebeam forming antenna whose gain is sufficiently high to acquire signalsfrom an AWR as far as 100 meters away. The beam forming antennas alsohave electronic scanning capabilities to track multiple AWRssimultaneously. The smart antennas are aided by an adaptive beam formingnetwork 178 which is discussed in more detail in FIG. 24. A diplexerfilter 180 is used to properly channel the transmitted and receivedsignals simultaneously. In the receive path, the weak incoming signal isamplified using a low noise and high gain amplifier 184. Using a mixer186 the amplified signal is down converted in frequency to theintermediate frequency (IF) and is amplified again using an IF amplifier188. Since the amplification process generates unwanted frequency sidebands, the IF signal may be filtered 190 from all other strenuous RFsignals. The IF signals contain the baseband information. Thedemodulator 196 extracts the useful baseband information provided by theAWR. The baseband information is channeled through an analog to digital(A/D) converter before being sent to digital signal processing (DSP) inthe DSP board. In the transmit path, baseband digital information fromthe DSP goes through the digital to analog (D/A) converter and is thenmodulated 192. It should be observed that a stable frequency of a localoscillator 194 is needed for both the modulator and demodulator to workaccurately and also needed for the mixer. In the reverse process, or thetransmitted path, the modulated information is amplified through an IFamplifier 189 and upconverted to a much higher frequency using a mixer187. The resulting modulated high frequency signal is amplified 183.Since the amplification process generates unwanted frequency side bands,the higher frequency modulated signal must be filtered through an RFfilter 182. The ready-to-be transmitted signal uses the same diplexer180 and a transmitter adapting beam forming antenna network 178 whichwill be discussed in more detail in FIG. 24. The RF transceiver boardalso contains a GPS receiver in the form of system on a chip (SOC) block198. The GPS receiver is connected to its own antenna 200 and interfacecircuitry 199 is provided for GPS data to be sent to the I/O interfacebus 201 which sends the data to the DSP board.

FIG. 19 provides a functional description of the DSP board for the AWI.FIG. 19 provides a description of all the electronic functionalitiesneeded to process all the baseband signals provided by the RFtransceiver board and other sources of data from other boards. The DSPboard extracts the digital information received from the AWR. Theextracted digital information is needed to calculate the position,velocity, and additional data from each AWR. The DSP board also providesthe electronics to provide the transceiver RF board with basebandinformation to be transmitted to the AWR. The work of the A/D & D/Aconverter 204 was described briefly in FIG. 18. The A/D and D/Aconverter main function is to process baseband signals coming from andgoing to the DSP board. The DSP makes the digital information from thebaseband signals useful for the computation of position, velocity, andother types of communications between the AWI and AWR. The DSP block 203contains all the basic elements of the DSP architecture. The DSP blockinterfaces with the external I/O bus 206 through interface circuitry202. The DSP block also interfaces with the main processor as shown inFIG. 19. The main processor performs the external control functionsacting on the DSP block. The combined elements of the DSP block work asa dedicated central processing unit (CPU) for a specific task. The DSPblock processes digitally large quantity of position, velocity, andcommunication data coming from multiples of AWR on a continuous trackingbasis. The complexity of the DSP for this application can be as large asthat of processing video data.

FIG. 20 provides a functional description of the CPU board or mainprocessor board for the AWI. FIG. 20 provides a description of all theelectronics functionalities needed to perform the overall controlfunctions of the AWI, which also includes the main control functions forthe I/O serial interface bus. The CPU board contains a main processor214, with its SRAM 218, PROM 208, EEPROM 210, and I/O bus controller212. The CPU board has self-test diagnostic capabilities and performs inself-test mode, program initialization mode, cold start mode, warm startmode, acquisition and tracking mode. The CPU board may provide I/Ointerface board servicing via the I/O interface bus 216, DSP control,position measurement control, and mass memory control.

FIG. 21 is the I/O interface board. The I/O interface board is the AWIportal to the outside world. FIG. 21 provides a description of all theelectronic functionalities needed to process data from external sourcesof information. The I/O interface board extracts and manages themultiple sources of information, such as data, commands, and controlsignals that arrive to AWI from external sources. The extracted andmanaged information is needed to help AWI with the many functions thatneed these external inputs. The I/O interface board is also responsiblefor channeling the required information to the I/O interface bus whichis available to most of the boards in the AWI. External sources ofinformation, that at some point may be needed by the AWI, can be ofseveral types. For example, external information can be in the form ofdigital data (e.g., information from the WWW and other sources), commandsignals, and control signals which allows for external user interface.The multiple external sources of information are multiplexed 222 so thatone source of information is addressed at a time and collisions of dataare avoided. The I/O interface controller 228 provides the controlfunction such as enable transmission 224, for the I/O interface board.The controller also is in change of control functions for memory 226 andinterface circuitry 227 in the board. All data is eventually channeledthrough the I/O interface bus 230. The controller design processes largeamounts of data that must first be temporarily stored in memory beforebuffered out via the interface circuitry.

FIG. 22 is the position and velocity determination board. The positionand velocity determination board are the AWI board responsible forcalculating the position (coordinates), speed, and direction of motionfrom multiple AWR. The position and velocity determination board areadditionally responsible for continuously tracking the multiple AWR. Theposition and determination board are the most complex boards in the AWIfrom a design point of view. FIG. 22 provides a description of all theelectronic functionalities needed to process data from external sourcesof information. In FIG. 22 it is shown that signal conditioning circuits246 interface the position and velocity determination board inputsignals coming from the DSP board. The DSP board provides four types ofdata to the position determination and velocity determination board:timing, from which the speed component of the AWR may be obtained;direction of arrival (DoA) from which direction of motion of the AWR,hence velocity, may be calculated; identification of the AWR; and statusinformation from the other three AWIs since all four AWIs may work insynch during the tracking of AWR. All inputs to the position andvelocity determination board are multiplexed via a multiplexer 250 toavoid data input collisions in the position and velocity determinationboard. The multiplexer's data flow is under the management of acontroller FPGA 248. The controller FPGA 248 also manages the flow ofmultiplexed data input to the position and velocity determination ASIC,the board memory, and the interface circuitry to the I/O interface bus.The position and velocity determination are provided by an ASIC chip254. As a large amount of data is processed from multiple AWRs, the datais first stored in memory 249 and is sourced out via interface circuitry252 to the I/O interface bus 256.

FIG. 23 is the mass memory board for the AWI. The mass memory board isthe AWI board responsible for temporary storage of position, velocity,and general data coming into the AWI and flowing through the I/Ointerface bus. A mass memory board is needed due to the large quantityof data from multiple AWRs which must be tracked simultaneously, plusthe potential large quantity of data from external sources and comingthrough the I/O interface board. The mass memory board has a controlunit 232 with its own controller, RAM, ROM, and a data manager whichprovides a control function to the I/O interface bus 244 and the rest ofthe board. The other elements of the mass memory, such as the I/Ointerface 238, memory interface 236, the actual memory components ormemory array 234, the internal router 240, and the local memory bus 242may all be standard design components of mass memory boards.

FIG. 24 shows the main functional components of an adaptive beamformingantenna, a type of smart antenna. The design of adaptive beamformingantennas is composed of three main elements. The radio unit 258 containsthe antenna arrays and all the matching antenna feed networks. Thebeamforming network 260 is responsible for electronic steering the beamin the antenna arrays for maximum gain in the chosen direction.

Maximum gain is needed due to the possible weak signals from AWRs fromas far as 100 meters away. The very fast beam steering can trackmultiple AWR simultaneously. The beam steering is possible through assignal processing unit 262 which independently commands the steering ofthe beam in a closed loop architecture. The outputs and inputs of theadaptive beam forming antenna are channeled via the RF transceiverboard. The signal processing unit is under the control of the DSP board.

FIG. 25 shows the architecture of the AWR. The AWR may be a smalltransceiver with some control functions and a user interface. The AWRmain function is to provide its location and direction of motion. TheAWR contains a simple omni-directional antenna 266. The transceiverblock is composed of a receiver 276 and a demodulator 278 for thereceiving path of the transceiver, and a transmitter 280 and modulator282 for the transmitting path of the transceiver. The transceiver mayconsist of a single chip. The AWR remains off until pinged by the AWI.Therefore, a power on reset 270 may be in the AWR. The pinged inputsignal from the AWI may be rectified 268 before the-on reset is usefuland can be activated. A battery with its regulator 272 may allow the AWRto perform as an active transceiver with a sustainable power source. TheAWR also contains a microcontroller 284 which is powered upon activationof the AWR by the AWI. The microcontroller manages the transceiver and auser interface with its display 274.

FIG. 26. provides a more detailed extension of FIG. 9. In FIG. 26 theterminology of autonomous wireless interrogators (AWI), shown in FIG. 9,has been replace by the terminology of ground-based transceivers (GBT)because the focus now shifts to ground assets. FIG. 26 illustrates thetwo-way communications 325 between the mobile, with its RFID (activetag) 310, and the four ground-based transceivers (GBT1 through GBT4) ofthe first the first cluster (Cluster 1) 315. It is shown in the figurethat there is also communication between the GBTs. For example, thefigure shows communications between GBT2 320 and GBT4 via acommunications channel 330. The figure also shows a communicationschannel between GBT2 and GBT3, and between GBT2 and GBT1. Per design,GBT1 through GBT4 are identical. Per design, GBT1 through GBT4 arecapable of communicating with each other, via a protocol to be discussedlater. As the mobile moves from Cluster 1 to Cluster 2 350 communicationtransfers 335 to a GBT in Cluster 2 (e.g., to GBT1 in Cluster 2 345).This process is called the “handover” which is to be discussed later indetail. As it was for Cluster 1, once the mobile is in Cluster 2communications will also exists among the GBTs in Cluster 2, as shown,for example, in the figure between GBT1 and GBT4 335. This communicationis via a protocol to be discussed later in detail. The figure also showsthat external access to the GBTs at any cluster is possible, such as isthe case for Wi-Max, Wi-Fi, and 5G devices 340 in Cluster 2. The GBTshave external ports that can be plugged into it for such access.

FIG. 27 is a much more detailed extension of FIG. 26. The mobile withits RFID (i.e., mobile/RFID) 360 enters Cluster 1 (C1) 365 which iscomposed (as all the clusters are) of four (4) ground-based transceivers(GBT1 through GBT4). Because these GBTs are part of Cluster 1, they arere-named in the figure as C1_GBT1 through C1_GBT4; 370, 395, 390, and380 respectively. All GBTs are identical in design.

The locations of the GBTs in any cluster must be such that every GBT inthe cluster must be in direct line of sight (LOS) with the mobile/RFIDin order to avoid destructive/constructive interfere. Furthermore, everyGBT in a cluster must also be in direct LOS with any other GBT in thenearest cluster (in FIG. 27, the nearest cluster will be Cluster 2 (C2))in order to avoid destructive/constructive interference. Therefore, thelocation of the GBTs at any cluster must be such that there is not asignificant advantage by any GBT over any other GBT concerningcommunications capabilities with the mobile/RFID or with any other GBTin the nearest cluster. This is an important qualification because allfour GBTs in a cluster are needed to calculate position and velocity ofa mobile and positionally none of the GBT in a cluster should have anadvantage over any other.

As the mobile enters Cluster 1 it can detect signals from up to fourGBTs. We classify these signals from the GBTs are “Pings”. Therefore, upto four “Pings” can be received: Ping-1 from GBT1 through Ping-4 fromGBT4. Eventually, as the mobile/RFID moves well into Cluster 1 it willbe able to capture all four Pings. The Pings from the four GBTs inCluster 1 will be received at different times by the mobile/RFID sincethe locations of the GBTs are different relative to the position for themobile/RFID, as the clusters of GBTs are designed in such a way, that itis always true. The timing of the “Pings” from each GBT to themobile/RFID is yet to be defined, but it is expected the “Pings” fromeach GBT to be every # of seconds.

Upon signal (“Ping”) detection the mobile/RFID provides a response (R).For example, the figure shows response R2 from the mobile/RFID toC1_GBT2 375. The figure shows four responses (R1 through R4) from themobile/RFID to each of the GBTs.

As previously stated for FIG. 26, FIG. 27 shows two-way communicationsamong the GBTs in Cluster 1. For example, the figure shows two wayscommunications between C1_GBT2 and C1_GBT4 385. For example, for Cluster1, such communicates are labeled as follows: MT2T1 means “mutual”communications between GBT2 and GBT1 (notice MT1T2=MT2T1); MT2T3 means“mutual” communications between GBT2 and GBT3 (notice MT3T2=MT2T3);MT2T4 means “mutual” communications between GBT2 and GBT4 (noticeMT4T2=MT2T4). Not shown in the figure are MT1T4 (same as MT4T1), MT1T3(same as MT3T1) and MT3T4 (same as MT4T3).

Each response R1 through R4 from the mobile/RFI to C1_GBT1 throughC1_GBT4 respectively, provides “time stamped” timing information for:(1) when did the mobile/RFID first receive the “Ping” from a given GBT(e.g. “Ping-1” from GBT1) as shown in the figure (this is known astime-of-capture or TOC), and (2) when did the mobile/RFID first sent theresponse R to a given GBT (e.g. R1 to GBT1) as shown in the figure (thisis known as time-of-response or TOR). Therefore, each GBT receives bothpieces of timing information (TOC and TOR) from a given mobile/RFID.Furthermore, (3) each GBT records its own timing information of when itreceived the response R from the mobile/RFID (this is known astime-of-arrival or TOA).

In an autonomous manner each GBT sends its own TOC/TOR/TOA ensemble tothe other three (3) GBTs. Therefore, each GBT accumulates four (4) setsof TOC/TOR/TOA data; its own, plus the TOC/TOR/TOA ensemble from theother three (3) GBTs. Each GBT performs a heuristic technique where eachGBT compares its own TOA with the TOA of the other three GBTs. If itsown TOA is higher than any of the other GBTs' TOA, the given GBT goesinto a “wait” state. One GBT (the closest one to the mobile) will findits TOA smaller than the TOA of the other three (3) GBTs. The GBT withthe smallest TOA will then assume “control” of the cluster and it sendsa command to the other GBTs to that effect. The GBT that assumes controlof a cluster is called the “Designated” (D) GBT. In FIG. 27, and forillustrative purposes, C1_GBT2 is redefined as C1_D_GBT2 395. The“Designated” GBT (i.e., C1_D_GBT2 in FIG. 27) is responsible forgathering timing data from the other GBTs and use the timing data toperform position, velocity, and relative velocity calculations as themobile moves through Cluster 1. Therefore, since C1_D-GBT2 in FIG. 27perform such calculations in a recursive manner, and it is said that theC1_D_GBT2 is responsible for tracking the motion of the mobile/RFID. Toincrease the accuracy of TOC/TOR/TOA the timing measurements are definedin terms of milliseconds.

As the mobile/RFID moves away from Cluster 1 into the domain of Cluster2 415 the signal strength of the response (R) signal captured by theC1_D_GBT2 goes below a threshold level. C1_D_GBT2 is then ready totransfer control (handover) to another GBT in Cluster 2. However, aminimum level of signal strength is required of the response signals(R1, R2, R3, R4 in Cluster 2) by each GBT in Cluster 2 before thetransfer of control (handover) is accomplished, but when such level isreached, C1_D_GBT2 commands each C2_GBT1 through C2_GBT4 425, 430, 435,420 (see signals C1C2TxF21 thru C1C2TxF24 in FIG. 27, e.g.C1C2TxF21=signal from C1 to C2 being transmitted (Tx) from GBT2 to GBT1)to start sending “Pings” to the mobile/RFID, and the whole process ofacquisition of response signals (R) starts all over again for the GBTsin Cluster 2, and another designated GBT in Cluster 2 will be chosen. InFIG. 27 the designated GBT chosen is C2_GBT1 425. In FIG. 27, and forillustrative purposes, the transfer of control form Cluster 1 to Cluster2 occurs from C1_D_GBT2 to C1_D_GBT1 400. As it was with Cluster 1, theC2_D_GBT1 in Cluster 2 communicates with each GBT (e.g., 440) in itscluster.

A simple fault management discussion is needed concerning designated GBT(D_GBT). If either C1_D_GBT or C2_D_GBT (or Cn_D_GBT, where “n” is thenumber of the cluster) hardware fails (permanently or temporarily), theGBT is Cluster 1 or Cluster 2 which received the second fastest TOA willbecome the new designated GBT. Position and velocity calculations canstill be performed with the remaining three (3) GBTs, but the Cn_D_GBTwill function with double duty (i.e., that of a D_GBT and a provider ofdata). Therefore, the design is single-fault-tolerant. The faultmanagement architecture is still in work.

FIG. 28. The figure is a re-do of FIG. 22 which was previously named (inFIG. 22) the position and velocity determination board. SpecificIntegrated Circuit (ASIC) term (in FIG. 22) has been replaced by a FieldProgrammable Gate Array (FPGA) and the name of the chip has been changedto Position and Velocity Determination (PVD) Hybrid System (HS), orPVD-HS. The I/O Interface Bus name in FIG. 22 has been renamed SystemBus. The different types of data coming into the multiplexer (MUX) hasbeen renamed for simplicity “Data” coming from GBT1 though GBT4.

There is a large volume of data coming into GBT1 through GBT4 in everycluster 445 from the mobile/RFID every # of seconds. The data comes inthe form of 8 words (discussed in more details in FIG. 31) into themultiplex/demultiplexer system 450. The data is channeled into thePVD-HS 470 (discussed in more details in FIG. 31) under the control of amaster controller FPGA 460. Data needs to be stored temporarily inmemory 465 before it is channeled to interface circuitry 475 on its wayto the system bus 480. The master controller FPGA coordinates theseoperations.

FIG. 29 The figure provides a more detailed look at the antenna array ofFIG. 24 for the purpose of illustrating a needed data point. The figureillustrates the angle of arrival (AOA) angle theta (Θ) 495 from themobile/RFID 500 with respect to the designated GBT (D_GBT) in thecluster. Therefore, the AOA starts being measured after a GBT has beenselected as the D_GBT. The beamforming antenna array 490 connectsdirectly to the radio unit (Tx/Rx) 485 as shown in the figure. Since thedistance (Di) to the mobile from the D_GBTi (where i=1, or2, or3, or4)can be accurately calculated (to be discussed in FIGS. 31 and 32) thedirectional distance vectors of the mobile with respect to the D_GBTican be calculated as; Di_x=Di*Cos (Θ) and Di_y=Di*Sin (Θ). Di_y and Di_xare the directional vector components of the velocity of the mobile;i.e., Velocity of mobile (vector quantity)=Speed+Di_x+Di_y. Furthermore,the relative velocity of two mobiles with respect to each other can becalculated by vector addition/subtraction of Di_x and Di_y of bothmobiles and their speeds.

FIG. 30 is a system's view of the GBT. All GBTs are identical in design.There are five (5) major subsystem within the GBT system: (a) the RFsub-system, previously discussed in some details in FIG. 18, (b) theposition and velocity determination hybrid sub system (PVD-HS) forposition and velocity determination, discussed in FIG. 28, andpreviously addressed more generally in FIG. 22, (c) the digital signalprocessing (DSP) sub-system (or DSP block) previously addressed moregenerally in FIG. 19, (d) main processor sub-system which holds thecontrol of the system bus (the highway by which all data flow) and whichwas previously addressed in FIG. 20. The main processor connects to theDSP block (also briefly outlined in FIG. 19) to extract the digitizeddata from the RF sub-system, and (e) the interface subsystem whichallows communication (data/commands) from external sources (e.g., Wi-Fi,5G, etc.) and which was previously briefly addressed in FIG. 21. It alsoprovide the interfaces for moving data into the system bus from thePVD-HS

The RF subsystem 505 facilitates the acquisition of the response (R)signals from the mobile/RFID. The RF subsystem send the “Pings” signalsto the Mobiles/RFID. The RF subsystem allows for communications amongthe GBTs within a cluster since such a link is needed for the selectionof the D_GBT among the four (4) GBTs in a cluster. The RF subsystemallows for communications of the D_GBT in a cluster with other GBTs inthe next cluster, as such communications are needed for the handoverprocedure when the mobile moves from cluster to cluster. The RFsubsystem allows the acquisition of signals (data, commands, etc.) fromexternal sources via a direct external port 546 which is connected to anexternal inputs' multiplexer 545; such signals can be Wi-Fi, Wi-Max,external inputs/commands. The RF subsystem also contains a GPSelectronics which allows for the exact coordinates of any GBT.

The digital signal processing (DSP) subsystem is composed ofanalog/digital (A/D) 510 and digital/analog (D/A) 515 conversionelectronics and a DSP block 525. The analog data coming from the RFsubsystem is digitized by A/D converter before being sent to the DSPblock (e.g., response (R) signals from the mobile/RFID, a total of 8words to be discussed in FIG. 31). Digital data from the DSP block canbe converted into analog signal by the D/A converter before being sentto the RF subsystem (e.g., the “Pings” signals). The DSP block processesthe data from/to the A/D and D/A converters respectively. The DSP blockalso provides an alternative use of the generated digital data fromanalog signals 575. The digitized raw data can be sent out for externaluse (e.g., quality control testing, data quality, troubleshooting,etc.).

The position and velocity determination hybrid sub system (PVD-HS) forposition and velocity determination of the mobile is composed of severaldesigns. The sub-system requires three major designs: (1) TheFPGA-Processor block 535 which acquires all the data via multiplexer 540and perform all the functions needed to calculate the position andvelocity of the mobile/RFID, (2) a master controller FPGA 530 whichmanages memory and data pathways to/from the PVD-HS, (3) memory elementsfor the master controller 550, and for the PVD-HS 555. A more detaileddiscussion of the PVD-HS subsystem is reserve for FIG. 31.

The main processor subsystem is composed of the main processor 520 andthe system bus 570. A brief description of the internal design of themain processor was shown in FIG. 20. The main processor manages the dataflow from the DSP to the PVD-HS via the system bus. It is also connectedto the master controller FPGA because it is the master controller FPGAthat request the data transfer (8 words) to the PVD-HS from the DSPblock via the main processor.

The interface subsystem allows: (a) data to move from the PVD-HS to thesystem bus 560 (data interface will be covered in more details in FIG.37), and (b) data that was externally received 545, 546 to be also movedinto the system 567 bus via external dedicated controller 566, andlocalized memory 565.

FIG. 31 represents the design of the part of D_GBT responsible forcalculating the position, velocity, and relative velocity (PVD-HS) ofthe mobile within a cluster. The figure represents the design of thePVD-HS which has its own electronic board, known as the PVD-HS board.The PVD-HS is the most complex design within the GBT, it is composed oftwo parts: (1) an FPGA driven design and (2) a dedicated processordesign. The FPGA driven design process incoming data from the GBTs andcreates some of its own data. The dedicated processor design takes theprocessed data from the FPGA driven design and creates additional dataof more complex nature, such as the mobile positional coordinates,mobile velocity, and mobiles' relative velocities. The PVD-HS wasbriefly discussed in FIG. 30. The PVD-HS in FIG. 31 represents adetailed design of the more general design previously shown in FIG. 22.

Timing data, ID data, signal strength of RFD response data, all flowfrom the three (3) non-D_GBT into the D_GBT. The AOA data (i.e., theta(Θ) angle) originates within the D_GBT as previously explained whendiscussing FIG. 29. In total, there are 8 words 585, as described inFIG. 31, that arrive to the D_GBT from each of the three (3) non-D_GBT.The PVD-HS provides three (3) words: (a) angle of arrival (AOA) from themobile/RFID, (b) Word 9, and word 10. Therefore, the words coming intothe PVD-HS from the other three (3) non-D_GBT are: Word 1: response (R)time of transmission from mobile (i.e. the time at which the mobile/RFIDresponse to the “Ping” form a GBT, Word 2: response (R) time of arrivalat a GBT (i.e. the time, as recorded by the GBT, when the mobile/RFID'sresponse arrives at the GBT, Word 3: T_ping is the recorded time, asrecorded by the GBT, when the GBT sends a “Ping”, Word 4: signalstrength of the response (R) signal from the mobile/RFID, Word 5:recorded time, as recorded by the mobile/RFID, of arrival of Ping tomobile/RFID, Word 6: identification number (ID) of the mobile/RFID whosetiming data is recorded from, Word 7: identification number (ID) of theGBT whose timing data is recorded from, Word 8: GPS coordinates of theGBT. Using the “Words” described above, from any given non-D_GBT (FIG.31 only shows these words for GBT1), the PVD-HS calculates Ti(i=represents the GBT#) which is the time of flight between themobile/RFID and the GBTi. The PVD-HS calculates the time of transmissionat the mobile/RFID (i.e., Word 1), Tm. The PVD-HS uses the time ofarrival at GBTi (Word 2) to calculate Ti−Tm=Ti which is Word 9. ThePVD-HS calculates the distance Di (Word 10) from the mobile/RFID to theGBTi, Di=c*(Ti−Tm)=c*Ti, where c is the speed of light, as shown in 580.Word 11 is angle of arrival (AOA) of response signal (R) from themobile/RFID to the D_GBT in the cluster.

All data from Words 1 through Word 8 from the three (3) non-D_GBTs arechanneled through a multiplexer 590 in the PVD-HS, but it also includesthe same words (Words 1 through Word 8) in the D_GBT, which is thereason why the figure shows data coming from all four (4) GBTs. Allwords (Word 1 through Word 11) are stored in the dedicated internalPVD-HS SRAM 595 which is controlled by the Master Controller FPGA 630whose functions were addressed in FIG. 30. It is important to know thatWords 1 through Word 8 and Word 11 flow through the Systems Bus(addressed also in FIG. 30) from the Main Processor.

All 11 words are passed from the dedicated internal PVD-HS SRAM to thesecond half of the PVD-HS which is managed by a secondary processor,known as the Application Processor Unit 615. The data transfer ismanaged by another FPGA design known as the FPGA-App ProcessorInterconnect 610. Data generated by the Application Processor Unit isstored in the FPGA-App Processor SRAM Memory 600 before being sent tothe system bus 625. A memory controller 620 is needed to manage thestorage of data from the Application Processor Unit.

The Application Processor Unit in the PVD-HS is responsible forcalculating the mobile/RFID coordinates (Xm, Ym) continuously. It isalso responsible for calculating the mobile/RFID's velocity, and therelative velocity of a mobile/RFID and its nearest neighbor.

FIG. 31 allows for all data (Words 1 through 11, mobile/RFIDcoordinates, mobile/RFID velocity, mobile/RFID relative velocity) to besent to a peripheral device(s) via a PCI bus 605. The approach allowsthe monitoring of the D_GBT and the three (3) other non-D_GBTperformance for diagnostics and troubleshooting purposes. Asimplification of this feature was first addressed in FIG. 21.

FIG. 32 The design of FIG. 32 is similar to the design of FIG. 31because all GBT are identical in design and therefore any GBT is capableof being selected as the D_GBT. However, if a GBT is not selected as theD_GBT only a portion of the PVD-HS hardware is used. If a GBT is notselected as a D_GBT only 10 Words will be generated in the PVD-HS by thehardware 635, 645, 640. The PVD-HS will not calculate the mobile/RFIDcoordinates, will not calculate the mobile/RFID velocity, will notcalculate the mobile/RFID relative velocities (i.e., hardware 670, 665,and 680 will not be used), and will not calculate the AOA of themobile/RFID (Word 11 in FIG. 31). In essence, if a GBT is not selectedas a D_GBT the PVD-HS's “processor design” hardware will not be used andit is automatically bypassed. The 10 Words will flow from SRAM 660 tothe FPGA-App Processor SRAM Memory 655 (i.e., from one memory locationto another) using the Master Controller FPGA 650. The 10 Words will thenflow to the System Bus 685 using the SRAM Controller 675.

FIG. 33 provides the mathematical implementation of the location of themobile/RFID using 4 GBTs, of which 1 GBT will be the designated GBT(D_GBT4) 705, the other GBTs (GBT1, GBT2, and GBT3) will triangulate690, 695, 700 the location of the mobile. From FIG. 31 it was observedthat we can calculate the distance (Di, where i=1,2,3,4 representingeach of the GBT) from the mobile/RFID to any of the GBT, and this isshown in the figure as D1, D2, d3, and D4. The GPS coordinates of the 4GBTs are known since the RF-subsystem in each GBT (see FIG. 18) has thecapability of finding such exact coordinates. Therefore, the GPScoordinates of GBT1 through GBT4 are shown in FIG. 33 as (X₁, Y₁), (X₂,Y₂), (X₃, Y₃) and (X₄, Y₄) respectively.

From the GPS coordinates of GBT1, GBT2, and GBT3 and from the calculatedvalues of D₁, D₂, and D₃, the coordinates of the mobile/RFID (Xm, Ym)can be calculated as follows:

Ym=(X ₂ −X ₃)*{(X ₂{circumflex over ( )}2−X ₁{circumflex over ( )}2)+(Y₂{circumflex over ( )}2−Y ₁{circumflex over ( )}2)+(D ₁{circumflex over( )}2−D ₂{circumflex over ( )}2)}−(X ₁ −X ₂)*{(X ₃{circumflex over( )}2−X ₂{circumflex over ( )}2)+(Y ₃{circumflex over ( )}2−Y₂{circumflex over ( )}2)+(D ₂{circumflex over ( )}2−D ₃{circumflex over( )}2)}/[2*{(Y ₁ −Y ₂)(X ₂ −X ₃)−(Y ₂ Y ₃)(X ₁ −X ₂)}]

Xm==(Y ₂ −Y ₃)*{(Y ₂{circumflex over ( )}2−Y ₁{circumflex over ( )}2)+(X₂{circumflex over ( )}2−X ₁{circumflex over ( )}2)+(D ₁{circumflex over( )}2−D ₂{circumflex over ( )}2)}−(Y ₁ −Y ₂)*{(Y ₃{circumflex over( )}2−Y ₂{circumflex over ( )}2)+(X ₃{circumflex over ( )}2−X₂{circumflex over ( )}2)+(D ₂{circumflex over ( )}2−D ₃{circumflex over( )}2)}/[2*{(X ₁ −X ₂)(Y ₂ −Y ₃)−(X ₂ −X ₃)(Y ₁ −Y ₂)}]

FIG. 34 The figure shows a graphical interpretation of how distancecalculations are implemented in an FPGA. The figure shows a graphicalimplementation of combined addition/subtraction adder in an FPGAarchitecture. It allows for the calculation of the time differencebetween the time of arrival (TOA) of the signal from the mobile to agiven GBT and the time of transmission of the signal from the mobile(Ti−Tm). A hardware implementation in an FPGA implements subtraction oftwo 32 bits words 705, 725 by adding 1 s complement of the subtrahend tothe minuend, and then adding 1 to the result 710. This can beimplemented with the architecture shown in FIG. 34. One adder unit canbe used for addition or subtraction, depending on the value of thesignal select 715. The figure also shows a graphical implementation ofthe multiplier algorithm (partitional sequential binary multiplier) inan FPGA. The multiplier algorithm constantly evaluates the distance (Di)between the mobile and a GBT. The multiplier algorithm is implemented bythe Datapath Unit 740 shown in the figure and a master controller FPGA730 (the same master controller FPGA of FIG. 30). The timing accuracy isin the order of milliseconds, hence the need to use 32 bits for eachword to quantize the timing.

FIG. 35. The sequence of controlling events needed to implement themultiplier algorithm of FIG. 34 is shown in FIG. 35. The controllingevents for the multiplier algorithm are implemented by the MasterController FPGA shown in FIG. 34. The description of the controllingevents is shown by the flow diagram of FIG. 35. The controlling FPGAfunctions consists of 32 steps (or states S1 thru S32) of manipulatingbits in a multiplication process for millisecond accuracy in calculatingthe distance between the mobile/RFID and a GBT. FIG. 35 is known as astate transition diagram for the controller. State transitions occurduring the active edge of the controller's clock and are governed by theconditions outlined in the graph. Under the condition of reset thecontroller enter an S_idle state 745 from any state and stays there.When the reset/ready state is asserted S_idle moves away and thecontroller reaches state 1 (S1) 750. From S1 the transitions to otherstates 755, 760, 765, 770, 775 covering 32 bits depends on M0, the leastsignificant bit of the shifted multiplier. If M0=1, the signal isasserted and a transition is made to a state from which Shift isasserted at the edge of the next active clock. If M0=0, Shift isasserted. When the state S32 is reached, Ready is asserted and at theactive edge of the clock, the controller transitions to S_Idle.

FIG. 36. The figure describes the memory controller function previouslyoutlined in FIG. 30 between the main processor, the master controllerFPGA, and memories (PVD-HS memory and FPGA controller SRAM memory). Avery preliminary illustration of memory control functions was outlinedin FIG. 23. The main processor, per FIG. 30, exercises a controlfunction on the Master Controller FPGA. Also, per FIG. 30 the MasterController FPGA exercises a control function on the controller SRAMmemory and the PVD-HS memory (also SRAM). Both control functions areillustrated in details in FIG. 36 between the main processor 780, mastercontroller FPGA 785, and SRAM memories 790.

FIG. 37. The figure provides a more detailed description of the“interface circuits” block 475 in FIG. 28 and the “interface circuits”blocks 560, 567, and 574 in FIG. 30. The figure shows the UniversalAsynchronous Receiver-Transmitter (UART) 795 design which is implementedwithin the following FPGAs: Master Controller FPGA, External InputController FPGA, and the DSP Block Controller, all of which are shown inFIG. 30. The figure also shows the UART connection to potentially twodifferent types of serial data interfaces 800, the RS422 and the LVDS,both of which are industry standards, and will not be discussed herein.The serial interfaces connect to the system bus 805. The RS422 and theLVDS serial interfaces are composed of driver/receiver pairs to bringthe UART signals out 820, 825 or to bring signals into the UART 830,835. A block diagram description of the UART and its signals is alsoshown 810, 840, 815 in the figure.

FIG. 38. Provides the formatting details of the 11 Words described inFIG. 31 and FIG. 32. The Words 845. 850, 855, 860, 865, 870, 875, 880,885, 890, 895 are 64 bits long, of which 32 bits are reserved for timinginformation and other numerical data.

FIG. 39. Represents the sequence of steps 895, 900, 905, 910, 915, 920,925, 930, 935, 940, 945 (known as processes: Process 1 a thru Process 3a) concerning signal acquisition (from the mobile/RFID) as it enters acluster of GBTs, signal processing by the four (4) GBTs of the cluster,signal handover from one cluster to another cluster, and signal trackingin general as the mobile/RFID moves through clusters of four GBTs each.

What is claimed is:
 1. An arrangement where four ground basetransmitters (GBT) in a given cluster have six modes of wirelesscommunications that can be performed simultaneously for the velocity andposition determination of up to 738 mobile devices with active RFID, thefour GBT in a cluster exchange timing data with mobile devices withactive RFID, the four GBT in a cluster exchange timing, control, andother types of data with each other, the four GBT in a cluster exchangetiming, control, and other types of data with GBTs of another cluster,the four GBT in a cluster provide raw radio frequency (RF) digital datato external interfaces, the four GBT in a cluster provide an externalinterface via WI-FI for troubleshooting and diagnostic purposes, thefour GBT in a cluster provide an external interface for 5G.
 2. Thearrangement of claim 1 wherein each active RFID of up to 738 mobilesdevices provide continuous timing information, via wirelesscommunications, to each of the four GBT in a cluster, whereas each GBTmanages such continuous timing information through a built-in RFsubsystem in each GBT, whereas the built-in RF subsystem in each GBTtransfers such continuous timing information to a digital signalprocessing system managed by a main processor system in the GBT.
 3. Thearrangement of claim 1 wherein each of the four GBT in a cluster, viawireless communications, exchange information (timing, control, andother types of data), with each other, whereas such exchanged ofinformation is done via the built-in RF system of each GBT, whereas inaddition, each GBT uses its own digital signal processing system and itsown main processor system to manage the exchange of information receivedby the built-in RF system in each GBT.
 4. The arrangement of claim 1wherein a designated (D) GBT (i.e. D_GBT) in a cluster of four GBT, viawireless communications, manages the transfer of information (timing,control, and other types of data) from the existing cluster, where themobile device with its own RFID finds itself, to the next consecutivecluster of 4 GBT where the mobile device is traveling to, whereas thetransfer of information is managed by a process known as managedtransmission (MT) between the D_GBT and each of the four GBT in the nextconsecutive cluster, whereas the transfer of information is done via thebuilt-in RF system of the D_GBT and the built-in RF systems of the fourGBT in the next consecutive cluster, wherein each of the four GBT in acluster, via wireless communications, exchange raw informationconcerning timing, control, and other types of signals, with an externalWIFI interface for continuous diagnostic analyses of the raw informationreceived by the built-in RF system of each GBT, and whereas such rawinformation is processed by the digital signal processing system and themain processor system of each GBT, wherein each of the four GBT in acluster, via wireless communications, exchange information concerningcommand, control, and other types of signals, with an external WIFIinterface for the purpose of troubleshooting a GBT on as needed basis,whereas the information concerning command, control and other types ofsignals are first received by a GBT via a dedicated section of thebuilt-in RF system of each GBT, and whereas the information concerningcommand, control and other type of signals are first stored in memory bya controller, and whereas the information concerning command, controland other types of signal is sent to the main processor of each GBT viathe system bus from which such command, control, and other types ofsignals are processed.
 5. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein each of thefour GBT in a cluster, via wireless communications, exchange informationin the form of data and other types of signals, with the radio accessnetwork (RAN) of a cellular network which connects to the mobile corecontrol plane in the 5G system, whereas such connection to the RAN bythe GBT is through a dedicated built-in cellular unit within thebuilt-in RF system of each GBT.
 6. An arrangement including fouridentical ground base transceivers (GBT) in a cluster, in a series ofconsecutive clusters of four GBT each for the tracking of a mobile withan active RFID; whereas the GBT is composed of six major electronicsubsystems for determining, on an autonomous and continuous basis, theposition, velocity, and relative velocities of a mobile as the mobiletravels within a cluster and as the mobile travels through consecutiveclusters of four GBT each, wherein the electronic subsystems are: (1) aradio frequency (RF) subsystem, (2) a digital signal processing (DSP)block, (3) a main processor and system bus, (4) a position and velocitydetermination hybrid subsystem (PVD-HS), (5) an interface subsystem, and(6) a memory subsystem, wherein timing information acquired from themobile and processed by the GBT is used for determining the position,velocity, and relative velocity of a mobile.
 7. The arrangement of claim6 wherein the active RFID for a mobile is capable of providingcontinuous and independent timing information to each of four groundbase transceivers (GBT) in a cluster, when the active RFID is beingrequested for such timing information by each of the GBT, whereas theactive RFID can also store timing information independently andcontinuously from each of the four GBT in a cluster.
 8. The arrangementof claim 7 wherein the active RFID is designed with global positioningsystem (GPS) capabilities so as to share the same capability of the RFsubsystem of the ground base transceivers (GBT), whereas the active RFIDof a mobile can transmit its GPS location to each of its four GBT in acluster, and whereas such information can be used to corroborate themobile's position determined by the timing analysis of signals from theactive RFID at any of the four GBT in the cluster.
 9. The arrangement ofclaim 6 wherein the RF subsystem is identical for each of the GBT in acluster, whereas the RF subsystem in each GBT has the additionalcapability of having its own global positioning system (GPS) to assertexact location of the GBT with respect to the mobile, whereas the GPSlocation of the GBT is transmitted, along with all the acquired timingdata from the active RFID and the GBT, to be digitized via digitalsignal processing algorithms.
 10. The arrangement of claim 6 the DSPblock (containing its building components: application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), random access memory (RAM)/read only memory(ROM), DSP-Core for performing signal processing, signal processingdirect memory access (SP-DMA), and digital controller) processes all thedigitized timing data (via A/D converter) from the analog data of the RFsubsystem into useful information, whereas the ASIC in the DSP blockprocesses timing information from the active RFID, whereas there is acapability of the DSP block to send to send all digitized timing dataraw data to external wireless/non-wireless devices or services forsecondary analyses and diagnostic services.
 11. The arrangement of claim6 wherein a position and velocity determination hybrid subsystem(PVD-HS) for each of the four ground base transceivers (GBT) processesall the timing information received by each GBT, a total of ninedigitized timing parameter, and whereas the PVD-HS creates an additionaltwo digitized parameters, all of which, a total of eleven digitizedparameters, are used for calculating the mobile's coordinates (i.e.mobile's position), the mobile's velocity, and the mobile's relativevelocity with respect to its nearest neighbor, whereas the PVD-HSperforms its functions via the control of a field programmable gatearray (FPGA) master controller, whereas the digitized data is formattedby the main processor before being sent to the PVD-HS via the systembus, whereas the PVD-HS memory bank, for storage of PVD-HS processeddata, is under the control of the FPGA master controller, and whereasthe FPGA master controller controls its own memory bank.
 12. Thearrangement of claim 6 wherein the interface subsystem for each of thefour ground base transceivers (GBT) is composed of three interfacecomponents: interface subsystem field programmable gate array (FPGA)controller, interface circuits component, and the memory subsystem,whereas the FPGA controller manages the data flow between the interfacecircuits components and data paths (e.g. interface memory, the systembus, external ports), whereas the interface circuits components providethe interface between FPGA architectures (e.g. via a UART—universalasynchronous receiver transmitter) and industry standard serialinterfaces (e.g. RS422, LVDS), and whereas the memory system componentserve as temporary storage of the data flowing through the interfacesubsystem, whereas the interface subsystem manages external data flowfrom Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, serial interfaces (RS422, LVDS), and other externalinputs for commanding and other data input services, wherein suchservices are managed by the external input controller FPGA.
 13. Thearrangement of claim 6 whereas the memory subsystem of each of the fourground base transceivers (GBT) has five components: (1) the SRAM memoryfor the interface subsystem whereas data flows into the system bus, (2)the SRAM external memory for the position and velocity determinationhybrid subsystem (PVD-HS) whereas data flows into the system bus via theinterface subsystem, (3) the SRAM memory for the master controller FPGA,(4) the SRAM memory for FPGA-application processor, an internal memorywithin the PVD-HS, and (5) the SRAM memory for timing data generatedinternally within the PVD-HS.
 14. A position and velocity determinationhybrid subsystem (PVD-HS) arrangement for the designated (D) ground basetransceiver (D_GBT), whereas the timing data from the other threenon-designated GBT (i.e. non-D_GBT) in the cluster and the timing datafrom the D_GBT in the same cluster are managed to flow through amultiplexer (MUX) architecture, whereas the timing data consists of ninewords from each of the three non-D_GBT in a cluster: (1) response timeof transmission from RFID, (2) response time of arrival of signal fromRFID at a ground based transceiver (GBT), (3) GBT's recorded time tolaunch ping to RFID, (4) signal strength of response signal from theactive RFID, (5) time of arrival of ping from a GBT to RFID, (6) RFIDidentification number, (7) GBT identification number, (8) GPScoordinates of GBT, and (9) angle of arrival of RFID signal to the GBTand two words generated within the D_GBT, whereas all timing data ismanaged and processed via field programmable gate arrays (FPGA); whereasall timing data is channeled through a processor design for thegeneration of the mobile's coordinates (i.e. the mobile's position), thegeneration of the mobile's velocity, and the generation of the mobile'srelative velocity, whereas the processor design consists of anapplication processor, an FPGA application (FPGA-App) processorinterconnect, an FPGA-App processor SRAM memory and an SRAM memorycontroller, whereas mobile's position, velocity, and relative velocitydetermination are sent to the system bus, whereas such data returns tothe main processor, transformed to analog data via a digital/analogconverters (D/A) and sent to the RF Sub-system for broadcastingservices, whereas the PVD-HS has an input/output (I/O) peripheralcomponent interconnect (PCI) bus to exchange data with any PCIcompatible external interface for transmission of mobile's position,velocity, and relative velocity data generated within the PVD-HS. 15.The arrangement of claim 14 wherein the position and velocitydetermination hybrid (PVD-HS) subsystem for the other threenon-designated (non-D) ground base transceivers (non-D_GBTs) do not usethe capabilities of their processor, but rather timing data from eachnon-D_GBT (words 1 through word 9, and word 11) is bypassed directly tothe FPGA-App processor SRAM memory from which it is sent directly tosystem bus, whereas such data returns to the main processor, transformedto analog data via a digital/analog converters (D/A) and sent to the RFSub-system from which it is sent to the D_GBT.
 16. The arrangement ofclaim 14 wherein the D_GBT acquires timing information from the threenon-D_GBT to calculate the position, velocity, and relative velocity ofthe mobile with its RFID, whereas the D_GBT receives nine words fromeach of the three non-D_GBT and an additional nine words from itself,each word being a timing parameter, whereas the nine timing parametersare used to develop additional timing parameters as calculated by fieldprogrammable gate arrays (FPGA).
 17. The arrangement of claim 16 whereinthe additional timing parameters are used to calculate the distance, adeveloped parameter, between the mobile with its RFID and each of thethree non-GBT, whereas such distances between the mobile and each of thethree non-GBT constitute word 10 and are computed by the D_GBT, whereasthe angle of arrival (AOA) between the mobile and the D_GBT constituteword 11 for the D_GBT, whereas such timing parameters, distancecalculations, and angle of arrival measurements are updated constantly,every predetermined amount of seconds, as the mobile travels through thecluster of GBT, whereas all such acquired timing parameters anddeveloped parameters are first conditioned by a FPGA-App processorinterconnect in the D_GBT, whereas the conditioned parameters arefurther processed by an application processor unit in the D_GBT tocalculate the mobile's coordinates (i.e. mobile's position), mobile'svelocity, and mobiles' relative velocity with its nearest neighbor. 18.The arrangement of claim 14 wherein several field programmable gatearrays (FPGA) within the position and velocity determination hybrid(PVD-HS) subsystem are configured to process timing information, whereaseach PVD-HS subsystem has three FPGAs.
 19. The arrangement of claim 18whereas one FPGA is configured to receive and process timing informationfrom each of the four ground-based transceivers (GBT), whereas a secondFPGA is configured to perform the master controller functions for thePVD-HS subsystem, whereas a third FPGA is configured to performinterconnect functions between the first FPGA and the applicationprocessor unit in the PVD-HS subsystem.
 20. The arrangement of claim 14wherein each of the eleven timing and other parameters words used by theground base transceivers (GBT) are 64 bits in length, of which 32 bitsare used for timing data, numerical data, and identification (ID) data,whereas each memory word indicates the type of operation to beperformed, the type of word, a source address (e.g. RFID, GBT#, where #is 1,2,3, or 4), a destination address (a SRAM memory allocation), thelength of the frame (for error correcting purposes), the operatingsequence (in what step, of a sequence of steps to be used in acalculation, the timing parameter will be used), and parity (for errorcorrecting purposes).